What does “NAS” mean in the world of whiskey?
The beginning of age declarations
There were no whiskeys with age claims until the so-called “whisky loch” of the 60s, when a drop in demand caused a vast accumulation of barrels of ever-increasing age whiskey in Scotland, so much so that desperate producers began to push on the advanced age of the cask to distinguish their products in a market overrun by cheap and trendy vodka and gin.
This in the end created the consumer's perception that aged whiskey was a better whiskey and that there should be a direct correlation between age and quality (there was, after all, a measurable correlation between age and price).
In this way the manufacturers of Scotch whiskey they finally started getting what they were asking for: the question.
Running fast in the early 2000s, thanks to the advent of social media where aficionados can meet and thanks to the relatively low prices of the whiskey loch, all of this has created a global frenzy for aged spirits.
The birth of NAS whiskeys
In a short time, the scotch whiskey industry went from having enormities of aged whiskey to be disposed of to a shortage of the same so that often the shelves of the shops remained empty even for months waiting for new whiskey supplies with certain declarations of age.
Those huge stocks of old whiskey barrels suddenly found a place on the market when producers found they could sell any whiskey with a recognizable distillery name and an age statement.
Here's the problem: With all those old whiskey stocks being sold, and without having enough mature whiskey in the warehouses to bottle the standard line with the age declaration created earlier, the producers found themselves with a major problem.
If they met demand by releasing younger whiskey, they would have to lower age claims. After all the marketing work and consumer re-education, this felt like commercial suicide.
If, however, they had stuck to the stated age statements, they would not have been able to capitalize on the whiskey demand when the shelves emptied, which was unacceptable to shareholders. The answer was obvious: abandon the age declaration altogether.
Whiskey makers have been smart about this. Knowing that modern whiskey consumers were a sensitive and trend-oriented group with the information age at their fingertips they sought to turn a problem into a positive one, thanks to marketing.
They rewrote the narrative, try to think about it: create a blend of single malts, invent one special limited edition edition with a mysterious Gaelic name and a rather relevant meaning, and say it was created by the distillery's semi-celebrity: the "master blender".
He claims this special blend required some younger whiskey to be blended with older malts and thus explains the lack of an age statement.
Whatever you might think of it, it turned out to be a brilliant move, and it was quickly copied by just about everyone in the industry. Some brands have even started replacing their standard line with replacement NAS as they obviously have less stringent rules.
NAS is not necessarily a "rip off"
Now, before you take to the streets with signs demonizing NAS, realize that the approach isn't all smoke and mirrors.
Just as a hammer can be used to build a house or commit a violent crime, NAS can be used as a tool for creating a whiskey that is better than the numerical sum of its parts.
Two splendid examples of this are Aberlour Origin e Ardbeg Corryvreckan. These both come from exceptional distilleries and prove that you can create a better whiskey by carefully combining the vibrancy and power of young whiskey with the concentrated, smooth sophistication of old whiskey.
The A'Bunadh is a better sherry bomb for that streak of fresh, bright red fruit running through it, just as the Corryvreckan is better for the sour, youthful peat that balances the stable, round and ripe Ardbeg.
Neither can be said to be an attempt to increase stocks because they are both bottled full proof (almost). If these companies were just looking at profits, they could easily have released 50% more crates by bottling at 40% alcohol and keeping the Gaelic name (and probably the price).
The downside of NAS
The advent and proliferation of NAS, while not inherently a bad thing, removes the information that were previously available for customers to make informed choices.
Due to NAS, it is now a little more difficult to choose a bottle, untasted, from a shelf and have a reasonable expectation of the quality of its content based on the label.
Without an age statement, you might take a product like A'Bunadh or Corryvreckan, or you might end up with a whiskey like Talisker Storm, which is objectively quite another thing.
The NAS forces customers to become more informed or take a greater risk when purchasing. A negative aspect, no doubt, but a historically inevitable consequence of the growing popularity of our favorite distillate.
Some notes on whiskey aging
The aging of whiskey in oak, in general, makes it better. The relationship, however, is not linear.
The improvement from 1 year to 3 years is surprising (indeed, it transforms the "malt spirit" into whiskey). The improvement from 10 years to 15 years is quite reliable. The improvement 20 to 40 years is not at all certain.
Many old whiskey bottles turned out to be bland and muddy, which were nowhere near worth the money it took to keep that barrel in warehouses for so many years.
Likewise, some whiskeys are probably better at a young age - many bourbons become undrinkable after the 15-20 year limit due to the use of new oak and storage temperatures.
I peaty whiskeys they often lose a significant degree of smoky potency after 16-18 years of aging (becoming different, not necessarily worse).
The use of some finishing barrels (still wet in their former liquid) can completely mask the subtleties of a malt whiskey if left to age for more than a year or two.
Conclusions
Although we would all like to have detailed information on each product purchased, although we would all like that on the back of each whiskey there was not only the age of the distillate, but also the type of cask used, the location of the warehouse, the variety of used barley and so on, unfortunately this is not the world we live in.
The reality is different, the rules are different and the only thing we can do is make informed purchases within the limits of what we know.
