Age Statements/NAS

The age statement refers to the number printed on a bottle of whisky which denotes the age of the whisky contained inside. To have a correct understanding of the age statement requires insight into how the age of the whisky is determined. One would think this is not too challenging a task, however, research conducted by Chivas Brothers revealed that only 10% of participants* correctly understood the meaning behind the number on the bottle. Details here.

The age of a whisky is determined by the date it was filled into a cask up until the date it was removed from that cask. (If it is then put into another cask, that period is added to the original period.) So more accurately then, the age of the whisky is the time it spent maturing in casks. This is simple right? Well, it is, but it is not the entire story when discussing age statements on bottles. The reason for this, is that as per my previous post on cask strength, a bottle of whisky is usually not filled from just one cask. So if two separate casks of different ages are vatted together and then bottled? Well then the age statement on the bottle denotes the youngest whisky in the vatting.

And there you have it. Although the age of the whisky is determined by the time spent maturing in casks, the age of a bottle of whisky is the age of the youngest whisky in the vatting used to fill that bottle. Thus, if a bottle is labelled as a 12yo, the youngest whisky is a 12yo, but there could very well be, and often are, a percentage of older whiskies in the expression as well.

A term that is more common in the world of whiskies, is no age statement (NAS), which means that the bottle’s age is not specified. As the Chivas Brothers survey indicated, most whisky drinkers have the perception that older whiskies are better. So the sentiment is that labeling a bottle with a large 5 may deter buyers, and thus you’ll find that for most distilleries, if the vatting has anything younger than a 10 year old in it, chances are it will be bottled as a NAS. Personally, it seems to me that the general approach is to label the bottle with an age statement, if that whisky is predominantly comprised of whisky of that age. If, however, the release has no-one majority age in it, but does contain whiskies under 10yo, then distilleries tend to release it as a NAS. This is would be a guideline though, not a rule!

Tips and Thoughts:
1) Unless a NAS whisky is from a distillery you know well, try/research before you buy
2) The approach of age statements/NAS is the same for single malts and blended whiskies
3) NAS whiskies are a growing trend, don’t turn your back on them, you’ll miss out on some amazing whiskies
4) Age is important, but many factors influence a whisky, so don’t be an age-snob

* The participants of the survey consisted of 2000 males aged 21+, in 9 countries, who had purhcased a bottle of whisky within the last month.