Stirling Single Malt Whisky: The 2027 Release Worth the Wait
For 170 years, Stirling made no whisky of its own. Not one drop. Then, on 27 November 2023, we filled our first cask at the foot of Stirling Castle and started the clock on something this town had not seen since 1852. That cask, and the ones resting beside it, will become the first Stirling single malt whisky in living memory. The date is set: June 2027. Every month the spirit sleeps in oak, it moves one step closer to your glass.
This is the story of a whisky worth the wait, and how you can be part of it long before the first bottle is poured.
A 170-year silence, finally broken
Stirling was once a whisky town. Then the stills fell quiet, and for over a century and a half the Castle Rock made no spirit at all. We reopened that chapter at the Old Smiddy, a working building since 1888 and now home to Scotland's smallest whisky distillery. It is the first legal distillery on the Castle Rock in more than 170 years.
Filling that first cask was never a marketing stunt. It was history restarting. You can follow the full journey, from the day the doors opened in 2019 to the spirit maturing right now, on our whisky page.
Why Stirling single malt whisky is worth the wait
Great whisky cannot be hurried. Stirling single malt whisky needs years in the cask to turn bold new spirit into something layered, warm and unmistakably ours. The wood does the slow work, pulling colour and character from the oak while the sharp edges soften and the flavour deepens season after season.
We could have bottled early and chased a quick sale. We chose not to. June 2027 is the moment the whisky will be ready, and not a day before. If you want to see exactly how we distil beneath the castle, walk through it step by step on our process page.
Distilled beneath the castle
Place matters in whisky, and few places carry the weight that Stirling does. Our stills run in the shadow of the castle, in a town that sat at the heart of Scotland's story for centuries. That sense of place goes into every cask. This is not whisky from just anywhere. It is whisky from here, made by a small team who live and work in the town whose name sits on the bottle.
Taste the beginning right now
You do not have to wait until 2027 to taste where it all starts. Our New Make Spirit is available today at £17.50, bottled at a bold 63.5% ABV, and it took the World Whiskies Award for Best Scottish New Make in 2025. This is the raw, unaged heart of our whisky, the very spirit now maturing into the 2027 release. Pour it and you taste the opening chapter before the ending is even written.
Own a piece of the story
There is a way to go further than the waitlist. Reserve your own cask of Stirling spirit and you own a genuine piece of the distillery's first whisky, complete with a certificate and access to our Members Hub, where you can watch your cask mature over the years. It is whisky as an heirloom, not just a bottle to open and forget. See how cask ownership works on our cask ownership page.
Be first in line for June 2027
The first release will be limited by simple arithmetic. A small distillery fills a small number of casks, and the spirit from 2023 only stretches so far. When bottles become available, waitlist members hear first and buy first. Add your name to the 2027 waitlist today, and be there when Stirling pours its own single malt whisky for the first time in living memory.
