The Macallan has just released the third entry in its TIME : SPACE Collection, and it’s the first Macallan whisky crafted entirely in casks seasoned at Valdespino, the historic Jerez de la Frontera bodega the brand’s parent company now partly owns.
The 20-year-old, 44.8% ABV single malt spent more than 18 years maturing in sherry-seasoned oak at The Macallan’s Speyside estate before moving into a second maturation stage: marrying in a selection of the first 200 casks seasoned at Valdespino’s bodega, filled in 2024 during Macallan’s 200th-anniversary year.
Alongside the release, Macallan is releasing a documentary, narrated by photographer Steve McCurry, that traces the cask-making process from American and Spanish timber forests to the Jerez cooperages and bodegas, ending at the Macallan estate itself.
Macallan had to do some shopping to make this possible
Valdespino has been seasoning casks used in Macallan whisky since 1973, but only as part of the open sherry-cask market like any other buyer. That changed starting in 2023, when Edrington, Macallan’s parent company, acquired a 50% stake in Grupo Estévez, Valdespino’s owner.
Edrington didn’t stop there: it went on to buy the Vasyma cooperage outright, half of Tevasa Forestal Group, and sawmills across Europe and the US, assembling a stake in nearly every link of the sherry-cask supply chain, from timber to finished cask.
Why the buying spree? Sherry cask prices had climbed sharply as global whisky production has boomed, squeezing distilleries that depend on a limited, centuries-old supply of Spanish oak and sherry. American whiskey giants handled that same pressure the opposite way; Brown-Forman, for one, sold off its own stave mills and cooperages between 2024 and 2025, including its longtime Louisville cooperage, choosing to outsource barrel production entirely rather than own it.
Macallan responded by buying its way out of the problem instead. TIME : SPACE Sherry Cask is really a proof-of-concept bottle for that investment, the first tangible evidence that having a stake in the supply chain can change what ends up in the glass.
Where to buy it
The Macallan TIME : SPACE Sherry Cask is available through The Macallan Ballot at themacallan.com, priced at $1,400.
