Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Shackleton's whiskey found in Antarctica

Posted by Jonathan Bender on Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 12:00 PM

click to enlarge shackleton.whisky.jpg

It's not quite Megatron trapped beneath the ice of the frozen arctic, but it's close.

The New Zealand Antarctic Researcher's Trust believes it has unearthed several cases of a lost Scotch whiskey left behind by Earnest Shackleton, who abandoned his expedition to reach the South Pole in 1909 at Cape Royds, Antarctica.

A story in The Independent details how the three crates of whiskey and two cases of brandy have been unearthed nearly four years after they were discovered beneath Shackleton's hut, which the New Zealand group is in the process of restoring.

Shackleton's brand of choice? It was MacKinlay's, from a distillery in Edinburgh, Scotland, now owned by Whyte & Mackay. The mixture contained within the bottles might just be the liquor equivalent of a mosquito trapped in amber.

"If the contents can be confirmed, safely extracted and analyzed, the

original blend may be able to be replicated. Given the original recipe

no longer exists, this may open a door into history," said Richard Paterson, the master blender at Whyte & Mackay.

To prevent the world's oldest and coldest liquor-flavored snow cone, the NZART will determine the best method for removing the bottles from the crates over the next few weeks. Ice has made its way into the crates and the smell of whiskey suggests that some of the bottles might have broken. If the bottles can be successfully extracted, get ready for an interesting story to become a compelling marketing campaign centered on the whiskey of a legendary explorer.

[Image via the New Zealand Anarctic Researcher's Trust]

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