Whisky on (Antarctic) ice

[silverfish]

"Old whisky can be found in some pretty amazing places.

I've heard of it stashed in the walls of houses, buried under

ground, and discovered in shipwrecks under the ocean.

But the trove left by Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton

might be the most unusual. Shackelton and his crew left

two cases of Scotch whisky stashed under the floorboard

of a small wooden shack at Cape Royds.

The whisky was discovered by conservators in January 2006.

They were unable to get the crates out but will be trying

again in January during the Antarctic summer. It's not known

what shape the bottles of Charles Mackinlay & Co. whisky will

be in after one hundred years of freeze and thaw. The crates

and bottles will remain in Antarctica unless they need to be

taken off the continent for conservation reasons."

More at Unearthing Shackleton's Whisky

and Whisky on (Antarctic) ice

[MikeK]

The ultimate dusty! (Unless Neil left any on the moon)

I've got a (now empty) 1/2 size bottle with box of 1960's VOF that was enjoyed during the Thanksgiving festivities at one of the Antarctic bases a few years back.

[fishnbowljoe]

Nice find on the article SF. Pretty interesting. Just goes to prove that you never know. :grin: Just like Candid Camera. "Don't be surprised if someday, sometime, somewhere, when you least expect it....." Joe

[Jono]

Just an fyi on Charles Mackinlay & Co:

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mckinlay/whisky.html

"In 1875, the brand Mackinlays Vatted Old Benvorlich Scotch whisky is registered."

http://www.maltmadness.com/whisky/jura.html

"Invergordon bought Charles Mackinlay & Co. (who owned the Isle of Jura

and Glenallachie distilleries) from Scottish & Newcastle Breweries in 1985.

The whisky industry is like the ocean, in the sense that the small fish are

eaten by slightly bigger fish, who are in turn eaten by the even bigger fish.

So, in 1993 Invergordon Distilleries was taken over by Whyte & Mackay.

A little over a decade later an even bigger fish came swimming by - all the way from India. In 2007 the United Spirits group (controlled by Indian politician and business tycoon Vijay Mallya) bought Whyte & Mackay."

http://dictionary.babylon.com/Mackinlay

Charles Mackinlay & Co Ltd

Blenders and Bottlers of Scotch Whisky

Founded in 1815 by Charles Mackinlay

Owner: Kyndal Spirits Ltd., Glasgow, Scotland - Whyte & Mackay Distillers (Glasgow, Scotland)

So, I assume the Shackleton stuff could be the Vatted Old Benvorlich. The case photo states "Rare Old"

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/environment/090909/shackletons-whisky?tag=contentMain;contentBody

[Jono]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7170472/Scotch-whisky-recovered-from-Shackletons-Antarctic-hut.html

Update

Scotch whisky recovered from Shackleton's Antarctic hut

Five crates of Scotch whisky and two of brandy have been recovered by a team restoring an Antarctic hut used more than 100 years ago by the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton

Richard Paterson, master blender at Whyte and Mackay

"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," he said in a statement.

"Cool"

In addition...Brandy...one from "The Hunter Valley Distillery Limited Allandale (Australia)" and another from "Chas. Mackinlay & Co" were found.