Age Statement or No Age Statement

[William]

Do you think the age statement on a bottle of whisky really matters?

Do you think every bottle should carry an age statement?

Do you think the current trend for No Age Statement whisky is a clever piece of marketing to mark up the price of young whisky?

Many relate the age statement on a bottle as a sign of quality of the whisky. You may have seen the Chivas Brothers Age Matters campaign last year to advocate the importance and value of age statements to consumers.
www.scotchmaltwhisky.co.uk/chivasbrosagematters.htm

When a distiller puts an age statement on a bottle, that age must be the age of the youngest whisky used in the mix. Having No Age Statement certainly gives the distillers a huge amount of flexibility to create perhaps a more interesting and complex whisky. They wouldnt get away with charging £60 if the bottle had an age statement of 6 year old on it even though there could be some 30 year old whisky in the mix.

Perhaps you think age matters to the price of the whisky.

[Andy M]

No not all whisky needs an age statement but i do agree an age statement isnt always a sign of quality.

I liked the recent Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix, although it had no age statement it did state that it contained whisky up to 30 year old. No harm in other NAS whiskies giving us more info about what is in the mix.

I dont 100% associate age with quality but i do associate it to some extent with price.

[Crane]

There is a number of decent NAS whiskies available now. The blend of young and old certainly gives us some interesting more complex whiskies. Having said that when i see an 18 year old age statement on a bottle i do expect it to be a higher quality whisky than the younger whiskies in that distillers range.

[Archer]

[Bookie]

When there is no age statement there is no reason why they cant tell us the age range of the whiskies in the bottle especially premium or limited edition bottlings such as Andy pointed out in the case of Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix. When a whisky has NAS and is priced at £20 then it is clear that it is a young whisky.

[Innes]

Personally if it is an expensive whisky i prefer to see an age statement.

[Keith]

[Fergie]

Admittedly there are a few very good NAS whiskies out there and we do seem to be seeing more and more of them. There are even a few that break the £100 barrier, one which comes to mind is the Johnnie Walker Blue Label.

[James T]

I agree the Longrow CV is very good but i have never thought much of Springbank CV although i like older Springbanks

[Big Mac]

I have to say i prefer to see an age statement or at least a good explanation of what is in the bottle if it is an expensive whisky.

[Calder]

Another couple of premium whiskies over £100 are Glenmorangie Signet and Dalmore King Alexander III. I cant comment on the Dalmore as i havent tried it but i have to say that the Signet is very good indeed.

[Acker]

There is no doubt there are a few very interesting NAS whiskies and some (depending how you view it) good marketing behind some of them to try justify the price. But not all whisky needs an age statement, if they did would we have whiskies such as Aberlour a bunadh, Ardbeg Uigeadail and Glenmorangie have a few such as Signet, Sonnalta and Astar

[McKay]

What i would like to see on labels is whether the whisky contains carmel E150a colouring.

[Craven]

[Kenny M]