Spirits auction platforms sparked back into life in August after a summer lull, with a new high price for The Macallan Time:Space 84 Year Old.
The limited release was once the oldest Scotch ever bottled, but now sits third on the all-time list. It still marks a significant moment in The Macallan’s history: its 200th anniversary. It also includes the first whisky released from its new distillery – a five-year-old Scotch whisky.
Two hundred were released, and a small number of buyers have been trying and failing to cash in. Its first five auction appearances failed to meet reserve, but a sale in Whisky Auctioneer’s July auction, which closed on 10 August, marked the second successive time it has been sold.
This isn’t down to increased interest, though, but rather acceptance from sellers that they won’t make their money back. Reserve prices seem to have been lowered, with this decanter selling for $128,487 (£95,000) before taxes and fees.
That is technically a record for the release, 26% higher than the price achieved in Hong Kong in March, when it went under the hammer for the first time. But it is still around a third below the $190,000 launch price. The same auction house saw another bottle of Time:Space fail to meet reserve two years ago (Nov 2024) despite a bid of $185,000 (£145,000).
Other trophy bottles in the same sale also struggled. A Hanyu Ichiro’s Malt Card Series Jack of Clubs from cask no. 9001 sold for $60,862, a few thousand dollars less than Whisky Auctioneer achieved for a bottle in June. Highland Park 50-year-old (2020 release) went for $18,100, below its original retail price.
That sale adds to Macallan collectors’ woes, as August saw the brand drop to third place in Whiskystats’ Brand Auction Price Index Ranking, behind Port Ellen and Brora. The two Diageo-owned distilleries have had a relatively good 2026, driven by increased interest in Special Release and independent bottlings.
There remains a reluctance across the board within the whisky investment market to accept losses. At Grand Whisky Auctions, 11 of the top 16 lots in its August auction failed to meet reserve. That includes a Macallan Folio No.1, which failed to sell for a price of $6,700. That’s a hugely significant gain on the original retail price of around $300, but far less than its trading high of $20,000.
The situation is even worse at Scotch Whisky Auctions, where eight of the top ten bids failed to meet the reserve, including all of the top five. Scotch Whisky Auctions does not display the highest bids of lots that have not met reserve.
Two of the bottles it singled out in its auction preview went unsold. A Karuizawa 1981 35-year-old Fazzino single cask #6412, one of 505 bottles, failed to meet its reserve. So did a Glenfarclas 1953 63-year-old Sapphire Pagoda, bottle 63 of 180 and the last release in the Pagoda Series. That contrasts with Whisky Auctioneer, where a 1.5-litre decanter of Glenfarclas Pagoda Ruby Reserve 1954 62-year-old sold for $20,287.
