Wow. Totally blew me away!
I’ve known Matan and Verstill for two years now, but until yesterday—and largely thanks to one Ohad 🥸—I didn’t truly grasp their brilliance. Verstill are flavor architects. They take a base distillate and custom-craft it according to a recipe you give them, shaping it into exactly what you ask for—within a certain range, of course. They use controlled aging to bring the spirit to a certain quality level within just a few weeks, drastically cutting down on the years typically required for maturation.
Before you jump in and say “it’s not the same thing,” I totally agree—and I’ll even add that it’s been acknowledged there’s no true substitute for time. But there are alternative ways to “cook” a spirit and still achieve incredible quality through innovative processes. Remember: this isn’t instead of, it’s in addition to. Acceleration alongside aging. Whiskies or gins made a bit differently, alongside those made “the old-fashioned way.”
We tasted some eau-de-vie, gin, and a single malt that was absolutely phenomenal—mind-blowing, really!