What is NAS Whisky?
NAS stands for No Age Statement. Here's what it means, why distilleries use it, and whether it should put you off.
In this guide
- What does NAS mean?
- Why do distilleries release NAS whiskies?
- Should NAS put you off a bottle?
What does NAS mean?
NAS stands for No Age Statement. A whisky with an age statement (a 12 Year Old, say) has spent at least that many years in a cask before bottling. A NAS whisky carries no such guarantee.
That's not the same as saying it's young. Many NAS releases contain genuinely mature spirit. The distillery just isn't obliged to tell you how old it is.
Why do distilleries release NAS whiskies?
A few different reasons, depending on who you ask.
Flexibility. Without an age commitment on the label, a distiller can blend whiskies of different ages to hit a consistent flavour profile year on year, whatever stock happens to be available.
Keeping up with demand. As whisky's popularity grew rapidly through the 2000s and 2010s, distilleries found their aged reserves couldn't keep pace. NAS releases kept shelves stocked while the barrels caught up.
Room to experiment. Some of the most interesting releases in recent years have been NAS: expressions built around unusual cask combinations or finishing techniques that don't fit neatly into an age-stated range. Without the constraint of a number, distillers can do things they otherwise couldn't.
Should NAS put you off a bottle?
Not on its own. A whisky without an age statement isn't necessarily a lesser whisky. The absence of a number doesn't tell you much about what's actually in the glass.
The more useful question is: what do people who've tried it actually think? Tasting notes will tell you far more than the label. Some NAS releases are genuinely exceptional. Others are forgettable. The age statement, or lack of one, rarely settles the matter either way.
On Whisky Diaries, you can see how NAS expressions compare against age-stated bottles from the same distillery. Often the results are more interesting than you'd expect.