New Zealand company Reactory has reached a significant milestone in its mission to create aged spirits in a matter of hours.
Following four years of development, the company is launching new technology that recreates the key interactions between spirit, oak, and environmental conditions.
It’s claimed the patented reactor can recreate the profile of a mature spirit in a matter of days whilst reducing oak consumption by 99% and environmental impact by 95%.
Those are big claims, particularly as distillers face mounting costs and reduced demand. Historically, the spirits industry has always struggled to forecast demand, finding itself short of product in good times and oversupplied in downturns. That’s largely because spirits like Scotch and bourbon take years to become drinkable.
The idea of reducing the time to hours would drastically reduce costs, but would the product be any good? Reactory says it is, and has something to back it up: its experimental Queen of Clubs rum won a gold medal at the London Spirits Competition, beating rums aged for 15 years and ten years respectively. How long was Queen of Clubs rum aged for? Ten days.
The technology combines newmake and pre-aged spirit with oak samples under precisely controlled conditions, accelerating what would otherwise take years.
Dr Mark Eltom, founder, said: “Traditional maturation has produced some of the world’s greatest spirits, and there are enormous time-honored traditions in this industry that we respect. But time, on its own, doesn’t guarantee quality and age doesn’t automatically equal maturity.
“At a time when the spirits industry is facing slowing demand, rising production costs and increasing pressure on margins, the need to innovate has never been greater.
“Ultimately, the only thing that matters most is what’s in the glass. We are now inviting founders, distillers and global brands to explore how this technology can be integrated into existing production to improve profitability and rethink traditional methods.”
The company is already partnering with several spirits companies, albeit confidentially, about integrating the technology into production processes. That is unlikely to be a Scotch brand, where rules strictly dictate that liquid must be aged for three years in oak to be called Scotch. Similar rules apply to cognac, straight bourbon, and Japanese, Irish, and English whisky, to name a few.
That limits Reactory’s growth potential to spirit categories without an official production framework.
