Glenfiddich And Aston Martin Formula 1 Team Return With A New 16-Year-Old Limited Edition

When Glenfiddich partnered with the Aston Martin Formula One Team in 2024, the goal wasn't simply to put a whisky logo on a race car.

"We didn't just want to be a name brand that's on a wingtip of a car. You know, we wanted to truly go into it as a partner," Brett Bayly, Brand Ambassador for Glenfiddich and The Balvenie, told me during a recent tasting during Tales of the Cocktail.

That philosophy continues this month with the launch of the Glenfiddich & Aston Martin Formula One Team 16-Year-Old Limited-Edition Release No. 2, the second whisky created through the brands' five-year collaboration.

Unlike many spirits partnerships with luxury brands, Glenfiddich says this one is intended to reflect a shared approach to craftsmanship. The new expression is inspired by Glenfiddich Malt Master Brian Kinsman and Aston Martin Formula One Managing Technical Partner Adrian Newey, two men whose work often isn't fully appreciated until years after it begins.

Kinsman creates whiskies that may not be bottled for more than a decade, while Newey designs race cars around aerodynamic details that can ultimately determine championships. The release centers on that idea that the biggest performance gains often come from work no one ever sees.

"What I find most compelling about Adrian's work is that the defining performance often comes from what you cannot immediately see," Kinsman said in a statement.

"Behind every Aston Martin Formula One Team car are hundreds of small decisions, carefully refined to create a seamless whole. The same is true in whisky making. For this expression, I combined the influence of five distinct cask types, each contributing its own character, texture and depth. The art lies not in the individual components, but in bringing them together in a way that feels perfectly balanced and instinctively right. The result is a truly unique Glenfiddich expression, vibrant with fruit, layered with warmth, and brought into perfect balance."

Expanding The Formula

The biggest change from last year's Formula One bottling comes in the maturation.

While the inaugural release relied on three American oak-derived cask styles, the new whisky expands to five cask types: first-fill bourbon barrels, Port pipes, Oloroso sherry casks, wine casks and Fino sherry butts.

According to Bayly, that wasn't done simply to make the whisky more complex. It was designed to subtly reshape Glenfiddich's signature fruit-forward profile.

"So what we've done here, and you'll already be able to notice the change in color, is that we've also now added in two extra casks. So we're now bringing in fino sherry, and we're also bringing port pipes. So what we're going to see there is it kind of dries it out a little bit. It's still a beautiful sweet fruit-driven whiskey, but it just kind of backs off a little bit on that sugary note that comes through in the back," Bayly said.

Bottled at 43% ABV, the whisky combines Glenfiddich's hallmark orchard fruit character with layers of sweetness, oak and spice from the additional cask influences.

Official tasting notes describe aromas of rich stewed fruit, floral notes, marzipan and polished leather, followed by buttery toffee, caramelized cane sugar and dry oak tannins before a long finish marked by lingering oak sweetness.

Why Another 16-Year-Old?

One of the more unusual aspects of the collaboration is that both Formula One releases carry the same 16-year age statement rather than progressing to a different age.

Bayly said that decision ultimately reflects Kinsman's willingness to experiment outside Scotch whisky's traditional age categories.

"Honestly, sometimes he just makes decisions and he's right. It's kind of how we see it, and he's got a bit of a carte blanche situation with the family. They're never going to tell him, 'Well, actually, you know, this is what we need.' Our brand teams can request stuff and see if we've got anything within an age space. But I think Brian at the moment is doing some really special things for the distillery in that he's breaking out of your traditional age statement periods," says Bayly. "Everyone's got a 12-year-old, everyone's got a 15-year-old, everyone's got an 18 and a 21, so we're seeing him kind of filling these gaps in between with just stuff that's exciting and relevant and gives us something to talk to people about and remind them that yeah we are here for a reason," Bayly said.

That approach has become increasingly common across premium Scotch as distilleries look beyond traditional age statements to create limited editions that highlight particular maturation techniques or cask combinations.

More Formula One Whiskies Are Coming

The second release also appears unlikely to be the last.

"We're going to see where it goes. I believe that there's discussion that this will be sort of an annual release. Our partnership with Aston Martin Formula One currently stands for five years, and we also have partnership with Aston Martin Lagonda," Bayly said.

In addition to the Formula One series, Glenfiddich also collaborates with Aston Martin's road car division on ultra-premium vintage releases aimed at collectors. Those whiskies have been unveiled during Monterey Car Week, where Aston Martin has a significant presence.

A Competitive Price For A Limited Release

The Glenfiddich & Aston Martin Formula One Team 16-Year-Old Limited-Edition Release No. 2 carries a suggested retail price of $79.99, making it one of the more approachable limited-edition single malts from a major Scotch producer.

Bayly said affordability has been part of the Formula One series from the beginning.

"It's a great little bottle. I think the SRP when we launched it was like 75 bucks. Really, really approachable for a 16-year-old," he said of the inaugural release.

For collectors, the whisky offers another chapter in Glenfiddich's partnership with Aston Martin. For Scotch drinkers, however, the bigger story may be the continued experimentation coming from one of Speyside's best-known distilleries as Kinsman continues to explore new combinations of age statements and cask maturation.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com