Adrian Newey has spent four decades obsessing over things you cannot see. Airflow. The half-millimetre curve on a floor edge. The stuff that decides a race before the lights go out. So when Glenfiddich put his name next to a 16-year-old single malt, the obvious reaction was a raised eyebrow.
Then you read what the whisky actually is, and the crossover starts making an unsettling amount of sense.
The Glenfiddich & Aston Martin Formula One™ Team 16-Year-Old Limited-Edition Release No.2 landed on Singapore shelves from 1 September 2026, and the campaign around it runs until 31 October 2026 across six bars in the city. It is year two of the partnership, and it arrives with a thesis rather than a livery.
High House pours The Final Lap and Green Sector, both leaning on Glenfiddich 16
Five Casks, Zero Shortcuts
Here is the part that separates this from a sticker on a bottle. Release No.2 sits at 43% ABV and is built on first-fill bourbon barrels, then layered with Port pipes, Oloroso sherry casks, wine casks and a final touch of Fino sherry butts. Five cask types. Last year’s Release No.1 used three.
Glenfiddich Malt Master Brian Kinsman drew the line himself. “What I find most compelling about Adrian’s work is that the defining performance often comes from what you cannot immediately see,” he said. “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.”
Kinsman has earned the comparison. He joined William Grant & Sons in 1997 as a lab chemist, spent roughly eight years apprenticed to his predecessor David Stewart, and took over as Glenfiddich’s sixth Malt Master in December 2009. He has nosed or sampled more than 250,000 casks since. That is a career built on the same currency Newey trades in: judgment you cannot demo in a highlight reel.
The Speyside Spritz runs at all six bars, mixing Glenfiddich with pear, lime, bitters and soda
The tasting notes read rich rather than polite: stewed fruits and floral top notes on the nose, marzipan and polished leather underneath, then buttery toffee and caramelised cane sugar on the palate with dry oak tannin pulling it back. Reviewers who tried Release No.1 called it approachable but short on depth. On paper, No.2 is the corrective.
Six Bars, One Spritz, Two Worth Booking
The Singapore rollout is where this gets usable. From September to the end of October, six bars are running their own race-themed Glenfiddich cocktails: ANTI:DOTE, High House, temper., Tess Bar, Writers Bar and VUE. Every one of them anchors the menu with the same Speyside Spritz, a pear, lime, bitters and soda build that exists so you can order the same drink anywhere and still recognise it.
Two menus stand out. Tess Bar’s Pit Lane Nightcap is the most interesting thing on any of these lists: Glenfiddich 12, cafe liqueur, Pedro Ximénez sherry, Earl Grey cream and butterfly pea sea salt, which is a dessert cocktail wearing a racing suit. And ANTI:DOTE’s “Box, Box, Box!” takes Glenfiddich 16 into Pedro Ximénez, smoked oak and chocolate territory, the closest any of these come to tasting like the limited edition itself.
ANTI:DOTE’s trio runs from The Overtake to “Box, Box, Box!”, built on Glenfiddich 16
If you want the polar opposite, temper.’s Apex Fizz is three ingredients: Glenfiddich 16, grapefruit, soda. No theatre. It is the one to order when the bar is slammed and you want something that arrives fast and tastes clean. Writers Bar’s Silverstone 16 gets points for nerve, throwing raspberry, IPA beer, lemon and egg white at a 16-year-old malt, though that is a gamble on a Speyside whisky’s dignity.
Reservations are encouraged, which in Grand Prix season is the polite way of saying go book now.
11pm at High House, One Night Only
The single hardest date to miss: Saturday, 10 October 2026, when High House hosts Coast to Toast: Glenfiddich AMF1 Edition from 11pm till late. It sits above the skyline with a view of the circuit, and it is a one-night thing rather than a season-long menu.
temper.’s menu includes The Constructor, Apex Fizz and a Podium Spritz built on Glenfiddich 12
Every guest gets a complimentary Speyside Spritz. There is a guest-shift cocktail menu, DJ programming, and a speed reaction game for anyone who has ever insisted they’d have decent reflexes in an F1 cockpit. Bottles bought that night come with a Monarch ritual serve. It is the one night where the whisky, the circuit and the crowd are in the same room.
What You Can Actually Take Home
Release No.2 is sold through Cellarbration, 1855 Bottle Shop, Habanos and Paneco.com while stocks last. Internationally it carries a suggested retail of around US$79.99, which for a 16-year-old single malt with a five-cask maturation is not collector-tier pricing. This is a bottle meant to be opened, not shelved.
There is also a signed helmet up for grabs. Consumers aged 25 and above get three chances with every bottle of Glenfiddich 15-Year-Old or above purchased, or one chance for every three Glenfiddich cocktails or qualifying whisky flight bought at participating bars.
Writers Bar’s Silverstone 16 mixes Glenfiddich 16 with raspberry, IPA beer, lemon and egg white
The bigger point outlasts the campaign. Singapore has seen F1 season tie-ins before, and when a local distillery released a limited edition gin for the 2024 Grand Prix, the appeal was the novelty. This one is arguing something else: that the discipline behind a championship-winning car and the discipline behind a 16-year maturation are the same discipline. Kinsman designs a whisky that will not be ready for years. Newey shapes airflow around a car that does not yet exist. Both are betting on a version of the future that nobody else can see yet, and that is a principle worth borrowing whatever you happen to be building.
🗓️ Dates: Cocktails from September to 31 October 2026; Coast to Toast on Saturday, 10 October 2026
⏰ Time: Coast to Toast runs 11pm till late
📍 Locations: ANTI:DOTE, High House, temper., Tess Bar, Writers Bar and VUE
🥃 Bottle: Glenfiddich & Aston Martin Formula One™ Team 16-Year-Old Limited-Edition Release No.2, 43% ABV, on sale since 1 September 2026
🛒 Where to buy: Cellarbration, 1855 Bottle Shop, Habanos and Paneco.com, while stocks last
🍸 Signature serve: Speyside Spritz at all six bars
🎁 Giveaway: Signed helmet, for consumers aged 25 and above
📌 Note: Reservations are encouraged
Set a reminder for 10 October, because the High House night does not repeat and the bottles are finite. If you are planning the rest of your race week around it, our guide to Formula 1’s off-track chaos is a decent primer on why everyone gets this worked up in the first place. Drink responsibly, and never drink and drive.
Visuals courtesy of Glenfiddich.
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