 The term sour refers to mixed drinks containing a base liquor ( bourbon or some other whiskey ) , lemon or lime juice , and a sweetener . Pisco refers to the base liquor used in the cocktail . The word as applied to the alcoholic beverage comes from the Peruvian port of Pisco . In the book Latin America and the Caribbean , historian Olwyn Blouet and political geographer Brian Blouet describe the development of vineyards in early Colonial Peru and how in the second half of the sixteenth century a market for the liquor formed owing to the demand from growing mining settlements in the Andes . Subsequent demand for a stronger drink caused Pisco and the nearby city of Ica to establish distilleries " to make wine into brandy " , and the product received the name of the port from where it was distilled and exported . 
