I Really Hate No Age Statement On A Whisky!!!

Boozehounds,

While I’m pretty sure I’m preaching to the converted here, I wish to state for the record how much I hate the recent trend of no age statements on whiskies is just driving me bonkers. It immediately makes me suspicious of just what is being covered up with the removal of this information. It also makes me wonder if they’re charging premium 21 YO whisky prices for a less than 21 YO whisky which I’m sure they are.

The three I find most guilty of this are MacCallan, The Arran and Tullibardine. And you know, it’s not like Cognac where it’s been the practice forever to not give age statements. This was and is an accepted practice for whisky since forever.

And just to rub it in, it’s the bloody cask-finished whiskies that are the ones that have no age statement. At least the heavily criticized Glenmorangies stated their 12 year old age on the bottles. Now we don’t even get that.

Through some long research I finally discovered that the Arrans which a lot of people like are a mere 8 years old or less! Who on Earth drinks Scotch whisky that young?!? Why would I do that just because you give it a nice Sauternes or Port cask finish?

This craziness has just got to stop and I don’t just mean Scotch whisky either. I don’t need the exact age stated necessarily on the bottle itself but if I cannot find ANY reference to the age of a spirit that isn’t grappa even on the Internet itself I lose any and all interest in that spirit.

It’s really too bad because I was just about to get into the MacCallan right when they switched to the no age statement b.s.

Hi Tran,

I agree with your basic premise. The only NAS whiskies I’ve liked enough to buy are Ardbeg’s Corryvreckan and Nikka’s Pure Malt White. Glenfarclas’s 105 I would buy, too, even though I’ve yet to do so. Beyond those two, I struggle to think of an NAS whisky I’ve had that has been better than “good.”

All that said, I’m sure there are many lovely NAS whiskies out there … I’m just not particularly drawn towards trying them out ---- too many bad experiences with NAS for me to feel otherwise.