El Pisco es Chileno?

So the post everyone's been waiting for, what is pisco? Oddly enough that's a difficult and politically charged question to ask. As with almost any political problem here, it's between Chile and Peru, who are like two brothers who will fight over anything they possibly can. Pisco is very popular in both countries and both claim it as their national drink.
In Chile, pisco is essentially distilled wine. The type of grapes and the way they are grown makes them high in sugar and therefore high in alcohol when fermented. Because this doesn't make good wine, it is then distilled to make aguardiente, or grain alcohol. This is then aged in barrels and then distilled water is added to lower the alcoholic content.
In Peru, the story is a little different, but I've never been there so I can't speak for it. The problem is that pisco was invented in Peru under Spanish control. Chile, during the War of the Pacific took part of Peru (as well as Bolivia's only outlet to the sea) and stole the recipe for pisco. Now Chile takes credit for popularizing it around the world and claims that their version is better. They even went as far as renaming a town in the 30's Pisco Elqui to strengthen their claim. Peru, who is always like the little brother who ends up losing just because he's smaller, did the same and have the law on their side, but is essentially fighting a losing battle.
All of this is neither here nor there. In Chile, pisco is the party drink. A Chilean once told me "No tomar pisco en una fiesta en Chile es un pecado." (Not drinking pisco at a party in Chile is a sin). In liquor stores there are three sections: pisco, wine, and everything else. Most of the time it's mixed with Coke to make a piscola, but can also be mixed with sprite or sometimes juice. And it's cheap too. A bottle of Capel, the most popular and cheapest pisco, and a bottle of Coke costs about 5 dollars at most stores. It's not uncommon for everyone to show up with the same thing at a party. Unfortunately, the mix cheap alcohol and sugar doesn't bode well for the next morning.