One-Hundred Year Old Scotch Whisky Found in Antarctica
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I was introduced to single malt Scotch whisky about six years ago after my in-laws returned from a distillery tour of Scotland. Never a scotch drinker, after sampling a variety of brands, I decided that Islay single malts, most notably Lagavulin and Caol Ila, were my favorites. Over the past few years, several of my friends and I have been searching for the ultimate single malt.I thought that the Macallan 30 year old that my father-in-law received for his 90th birthday was pretty special.
Imagine my surprise after learning that a team of New Zealand scientists recovered five crates of 100 year old Mackinlay’s whisky from the ice below an Antarctic hut once used by the famed polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. While Mackinlay is a blend whisky and not a single malt, its age alone is extraordinary and impressive! Although some of the bottles had cracked because of the ice, the team who found them - restorers working on the hut - said they were sure the crates contained intact bottles "given liquid can be heard when the crates are moved".
Whyte & Mackay, which owns the McKinlay brand and supplied the whisky for Shackleton, launched the bid to recover the bottles for samples to test and decide whether to relaunch the defunct spirit. The drinks group's master blender Richard Paterson described the find as "a gift from the heavens for whisky lovers". He added,
"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."
Shackleton's expedition ran short of supplies on its long ski trek to the South Pole from the northern Antarctic coast in 1907-1909 and turned back about 100 miles short of its goal.
His loss—our gain!
