Our Story
Vera spirits is a non-alcoholic distillery based in Slovenia founded and operated by Luka Nagode, Urska Dvoracek, and Jernej Peterlin - chefs and restaurateurs from Ljubljana.
Our story begins with Vera, Luka’s beloved aunt, born in an old harbor town in the North Adriatic coast, to successful distillery owners. Growing up within the noble circles of society, Vera came across became fascinated by the diversity of personalities she met during her youth. As she grew up, she became increasingly more curious about how people relate to one another.. To her, it was very similar to the endless variations of taste and smell that one could come up with while distilling all sorts of botanicals.
Inspired by Vera’s lifelong travels along the Mediterranean coast on her quest to discover the perfect taste for each personality type, we have decided to continue her mission and explore flavors, ingredients, and distilling methods in detail to create our unique blends. Our process begins with extensive research and experimentation and ends with refined combinations of local, high-quality organic ingredients.
The distillation process begins by carefully choosing our ingredients. We outsource botanicals based on quality and perfect timing, ensuring we rely primarily on local and seasonal ingredients. For production, we use spring water that comes directly from the Alps.
After studying each ingredient and its optimal distillation conditions, we develop recipes and procedures for each product. We distill our botanicals with great care, giving them the perfect conditions to extract wanted aromatic compounds. We use two different methods depending on the part of botanical: use maceration and vapor infusion. Maceration involves soaking and cooking the botanicals in a still. We use this procedure for more delicate botanicals and juices.
During vapor infusion, we place botanicals in the path of the vapor coming off the still before the steam is condensed. The moisture picks up the flavors from the botanicals as it passes by. The resulting product is considered by many to be more fresh and delicate than that produced by maceration.
After distillation, we carefully blend our distillates to achieve harmony between aromatics. The final product is then filtered, pasteurized (to ensure quality and safety), and finally, bottled.
