New Release: Macallan TIME : SPACE Sherry Cask

New Release: Macallan TIME : SPACE Sherry Cask

The Macallan has added a second bottle to its Time : Space collection. Macallan TIME : SPACE Sherry Cask is a 20 Years Old Highland single malt at 44.8% ABV, and it follows Macallan TIME : SPACE Mastery, the 2024 bottling that opened the range. It is sold through The Macallan Boutique at Harrods and themacallan.com.

Where the first bottle was about the distillery itself, this one is about wood. What defines it happened in Jerez, in the cooperages and the bodega that supply the casks, rather than on the estate in Speyside.

What Makes It Different From the First Time : Space

Two numbers separate the bottles. Mastery went out with no age statement at 43.6% ABV. Sherry Cask states 20 years and sits at 44.8%, which places it above the 18 Years Old and below the 25 Years Old in the Sherry Oak range, and nearer the 25 on price.

Stated ages have become the pattern at the distillery rather than the exception. Its recent James Bond edition carried an age statement alongside a vintage year, and the 12 Years Old 110 Proof took the place of the discontinued Classic Cut. Global creative director Jaume Ferras puts the case in terms of transparency: a buyer who sees an age knows what is in the bottle.

The packaging did not move. Both bottles use the same circular decanter with an opening through the middle, a shape traditional collectors disliked and buyers cleared out anyway.

The Valdespino Casks Behind It

Cask prices climbed after the production boom that followed the pandemic. Rather than keep paying them, The Macallan bought into the supply chain. Across 2023 and 2024 it took half of Grupo Estevez, the owner of Valdespino, all of the Vasyma cooperage, half of Tevasa Forestal Group, and sawmills on both sides of the Atlantic.

Sherry Cask is what that looks like poured into a glass. The whisky was married in casks seasoned with Valdespino sherry, taken from the first 200 filled in 2024, the distillery's two hundredth year. Valdespino casks had reached Speyside long before that, with records going back to 1973, but they were never set apart from the rest of the inventory.

"This release is the first deliberate effort to use only Valdespino casks."

One detail explains a phrase that appears on every Macallan label. The sherry that seasons these casks follows a recipe the distillery worked out with Valdespino and keeps to itself. It matches no designated sherry style, so the label reads sherry seasoned oak casks and never oloroso. Most of this whisky's life was spent in other sherry seasoned oak, which makes the Valdespino period a final layer rather than the base.

How It Tastes

The whisky is predominantly European oak with a touch of American oak, and it pours dark amber. Official notes give a nose of sherry soaked fruit with dark chocolate truffle, cinnamon and ginger. The palate runs to sultanas, dates and apricots with ginger cake, toffee and a jam like richness, and the finish is long and warming, with soft wood spice, a trace of espresso and oak.

Release and Availability

This is a 700ml bottling at 44.8% ABV, sold through The Macallan Boutique at Harrods and themacallan.com. For how the collection began, read our article on The Macallan Time : Space Collection.

The Macallan TIME : SPACE Sherry Cask is available for preorder now on Spiritory, alongside Macallan TIME : SPACE Mastery.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Sherry Cask differ from Time : Space Mastery?

It states an age where Mastery did not, at 20 years, and it is a little stronger at 44.8% ABV against 43.6%. The casks are the other difference: this one was married in Valdespino sherry seasoned casks.

Why does the label say sherry seasoned oak rather than oloroso?

The seasoning sherry follows a recipe made for The Macallan by Valdespino. It falls outside the designated sherry styles, so the word oloroso cannot be used.

Where does it sit in the Sherry Oak range?

Between the 18 Years Old and the 25 Years Old, and nearer the 25 in price.

What does the 2024 bicentenary have to do with this bottling?

The casks used for the marrying period were the first 200 filled in that anniversary year, the first to follow the 2023 supply agreement.