On NAS bottlings: My girlfriend is in the Scotch whisky industry and tells me that among some circles, Compass Box's "transparency campaign" has been gaining so

On NAS bottlings: My girlfriend is in the Scotch whisky industry and tells me that among some circles, Compass Box's "transparency campaign" has been gaining some supporters. Occasionally, (apparently) you'll find a NAS is actually comprised 80% of some 18 year old or 25 year old stuff but the master blender has added some 5 year old (say) not because of shortage but because it improves flavour. Of course then you need to sell that either as a 5 year old blended whisky or not mention its age at all. Frustrating for marketers and consumers alike, because one person can't say what they are selling other than the promise of high quality, and the other side has no real idea what they are buying (because the marketing would claim high quality regardless). A few years back Compass Box, finding themselves in this situation, published the full recipe for one of their blends online (not even on the packaging) and this was found to be in contravention of EU regulations. They launched a campaign to have this rule relaxed in the case where full recipes are posted. Another side to it is that the current rules might be considered by some to give an unfair advantage to your massive conglomerates i.e. Diageo and Pernod-Ricard who have massive purchasing power over the "old stuff". I see both sides of the argument: on the one hand it's hard to feel like people are misled by a full and accurate recipe being posted. But maybe it carries with it that because your blend is comprised <qualitatively high number>% 18 year old then your average consumer might decide it is of comparable quality to a straight 18 year old even if you've mixed in some paint thinner. My take is that Compass Box's particular situation is different than that of the distillers as they blend off the shelf whisky. They would be saying "we blended 18 year old Glenlivet with 12 year old macallan" as opposed to "we took some of an 18 year old cask and some of a 12 year old cask" - I think it's less clear that the latter is a recipe than the former. (All this isn't to say lack of stock isn't a problem - it is and it is the main reason for NAS - just not always the only reason.)