At first blush, it looks as if there are few disciplines additional aside than whisky making and auto racing. Racing is about velocity and energy, metallic and fiberglass, measuring time in tenths or hundredths of a second. Creating nice whisky, alternatively, requires immense endurance — sufficient to information an getting older oak cask via years and many years, ready patiently till it reaches its peak of maturity. 

However  Brian Kinsman, the malt grasp for Glenfiddich, sees the 2 disparate crafts as “united by a deep respect for craftsmanship, whether or not it’s the meticulous getting older of a single malt whisky or the precision engineering of a high-performance automobile. Every calls for imaginative and prescient, ability, and an uncompromising consideration to element, which lead to creations that encourage ardour and invite exploration.”

Kinsman brings the connection to fruition in The Glenfiddich 16-Yr-Previous Single Malt Scotch Whisky, the primary challenge from the Speyside distillery’s collaboration with the Aston Martin Method One Group. The unique, long-term partnership kicked off in November 2024 on the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and that is the primary whisky produced from their union. 

Kinsman is a self-described Method One fanatic: “I watched F1 quite a bit again within the ’80s and ’90s with the legendary names of Senna, Mansell, Prost, and Schumacher. I drifted away a bit for a number of years, however obtained again into it with the brand new technology of Hamilton and Verstappen. Having now had the possibility to be at a race, I like it!” 

Kinsman says a go to to the Aston Martin Method One headquarters “was eye-opening for me. Whereas the know-how and engineering are leading edge, the craftsmanship, precision, and ability of the individuals working there was very harking back to our distillery.”

The 16-year-old whisky impressed by the go to rewards endurance on the a part of the drinker, not velocity. However like a fine-tuned F1 racer, it’s an intricate, complicated affair. Aged in a mixture of new American oak, second-fill ex-bourbon barrels, and American oak wine casks, it’s a uncommon Glenfiddich expression matured solely in American oak.

“We needed to showcase the affect of American oak and the way it actually brings out the core character of Glenfiddich. In most of our expressions, we marry American and European oak collectively. It is a good instance the place a singular oak sort shines by itself,” Kinsman explains.

Glenfiddich 16 Yr Previous is described as having a wealthy and candy nostril; a silky, syrupy mouthfeel with notes of recent fruit salad and Chantilly cream; and a easy, candy end. “Glenfiddich matured in American oak has a variety of potentialities as the flavour simply grows with age,” Kinsman says. “The mid-teens sees a very nice stability of robust distillery character — juicy, ripe fruits — and cask affect [with] vanilla, toffee sweetness. Our Solera 15 Yr Previous is a good instance of that stability. For this expression, 16 years outdated simply felt proper.”

Glenfiddich guarantees that the 16 Yr Previous is only the start of an extended collaboration with the enduring British automaker. However this explicit expression will, alas, solely be obtainable for a restricted time.