Rare Scotch returned to Antarctic
Source: Agencies |
January 20, 2013, Sunday
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Print Edition
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TALK about whisky on ice: Three bottles of rare, 19th century whisky found beneath the floor boards of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's abandoned expedition base were returned to the polar continent yesterday, after a distiller had flown them to Scotland to recreate the long-lost recipe.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key personally returned the whisky to Antarctic Heritage Trust officials at a ceremony at New Zealand's Antarctic base on Ross Island. The bottles will be transferred by March from Ross Island to the desolate hut at Cape Royds, where they had been forgotten for 102 years.
Key acknowledged that some would question why the bottles were being replaced beneath the restored hut as part of a program to protect the legacy of the era of Antarctic exploration from 1898 to 1915.
"I think we're all tempted to crack it open and have a little drink ourselves," Key said.
The bottles of Mackinlay's whisky, bottled in 1898 after the blend was aged 15 years, were among three crates of Scotch and two of brandy buried beneath a hut Shackleton used during his 1907 Antarctic expedition. He failed to reach the South Pole but set a record for reaching the farthest southern latitude.
Shackleton's stash was discovered in 2010. The crates were frozen solid but the precious bottles were found intact.
Distiller Whyte & Mackay, which now owns the Mackinlay brand, flew the bottles from the Antarctic operations headquarters in Christchurch to Scotland for analysis in 2011. The recipe had been lost but Whyte & Mackay recreated 50,000 bottles from a sample drawn through a cork of one of the bottles.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key personally returned the whisky to Antarctic Heritage Trust officials at a ceremony at New Zealand's Antarctic base on Ross Island. The bottles will be transferred by March from Ross Island to the desolate hut at Cape Royds, where they had been forgotten for 102 years.
Key acknowledged that some would question why the bottles were being replaced beneath the restored hut as part of a program to protect the legacy of the era of Antarctic exploration from 1898 to 1915.
"I think we're all tempted to crack it open and have a little drink ourselves," Key said.
The bottles of Mackinlay's whisky, bottled in 1898 after the blend was aged 15 years, were among three crates of Scotch and two of brandy buried beneath a hut Shackleton used during his 1907 Antarctic expedition. He failed to reach the South Pole but set a record for reaching the farthest southern latitude.
Shackleton's stash was discovered in 2010. The crates were frozen solid but the precious bottles were found intact.
Distiller Whyte & Mackay, which now owns the Mackinlay brand, flew the bottles from the Antarctic operations headquarters in Christchurch to Scotland for analysis in 2011. The recipe had been lost but Whyte & Mackay recreated 50,000 bottles from a sample drawn through a cork of one of the bottles.
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