Glenfiddich and the Aston Martin Formula One Team have unveiled the second whisky in their ongoing partnership: the Glenfiddich & Aston Martin Formula One Team 16-Year-Old Limited-Edition Release No. 2, marking the collaboration’s second year.
The new expression draws its inspiration from Glenfiddich Malt Master Brian Kinsman and Aston Martin Formula One Team Managing Technical Partner Adrian Newey, built around the idea that performance in both whisky-making and car design is shaped as much by unseen detail as by what is visible on the surface.
Glenfiddich and Aston Martin announced their multi-year partnership in November 2024 at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The first release under the collaboration arrived in September 2025 — a 16-Year-Old made from a marriage of American oak wine casks, new American oak barrels and second-fill bourbon casks, alongside a companion 19-Year-Old bottling, both marking the partnership’s first anniversary.
Release No. 2 takes a different cask approach. It is matured across five cask types — first-fill bourbon barrels, Port pipes, Oloroso sherry casks, wine casks and a finishing period in Fino sherry butts — layered to build what Glenfiddich describes as a progression of sweetness, richness and structure.
“What I find most compelling about Adrian’s work is that the defining performance often comes from what you cannot immediately see. 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.”
Brian Kinsman, Glenfiddich’s Malt Master
“What I love most about this expression is its sense of balance. Every element has a role to play, yet nothing feels dominant or out of place. There’s a wonderful harmony between the fruit, richness and oak, which reflects the care and precision behind every stage of its creation. It’s a whisky that showcases how thoughtful craftsmanship can transform individual components into something truly greater than the sum of its parts.”
Mijung Kim, Regional Malts Ambassador for Glenfiddich
According to tasting notes supplied by Glenfiddich, the whisky opens with stewed fruit and floral top notes on the nose, with hints of marzipan and polished leather that become more pronounced with a drop of water. On the palate, it is described as mellow and silky, with a buttery toffee sweetness and caramelised cane sugar balanced by dry oak tannin, finishing with a long, oaky sweetness. It is bottled at 43 per cent ABV.
In Malaysia, Glenfiddich is marking the launch with a pop-up activation at Jaya Grocer in The Gardens Mall, Kuala Lumpur, running from 2 to 11 October 2026. The experience includes an interactive driving simulator alongside tastings of the new release. The whisky became available nationwide in September at selected retailers, including Hank’s, The Chamber and Cellar 18, while stocks last.
For collectors and casual drinkers alike, the appeal of this release lies in the five-cask structure here — moving from bourbon through Port, Oloroso, wine and a Fino sherry finish — giving drinkers something concrete to taste and compare, not just a label to admire. For anyone who picked up the inaugural 2025 release, trying this one side by side offers a rare chance to track how a single collaboration evolves in the glass from one year to the next.
Locally, the timing is useful for anyone planning ahead: with the pop-up running only through 11 October 2026 and the bottle positioned as limited-edition stock at Hank’s, The Chamber and Cellar 18, drinkers interested in trying it fresh rather than hunting for it later have a fairly narrow window. For those newer to single malt, Glenfiddich’s own tasting notes — fruit-forward, sherry-influenced, finishing on oak rather than smoke — make this a reasonably approachable entry point into cask-finished whisky, without requiring prior familiarity with peatier or more austere styles. Whether or not motorsport is the draw, it’s a release built to be tasted and discussed rather than simply collected.
Photos by Glenfiddich
