Five crates of 100 year-old whisky dug out of antartic ice

Published on Friday 5 February 2010 22:06

FOR those who like their dram chilled, it's perfect. A whisky that sustained explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole a century ago has been drilled out of the Antarctic ice.

• Cases of vintage Mackinlays whiskt have been found buried at explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton base at Cape Royds Antarctica

Five crates buried under ice have been recovered by a heritage team restoring the explorer's hut. Al Fastier, the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust team leader, yesterday said he believes some bottles are still intact.

The whisky was made by McKinlay and Co, and drinks group Whyte & Mackay has asked for a sample to carry out tests with a view to re-launching the brand.

Although ice cracked some of the bottles, which had been left there in 1909, the restorers said they are confident the five crates contain intact bottles "given liquid can be heard when the crates are moved".

Mr Fastier said the team thought there were two whisky and brandy crates and were amazed to find five. Restoration workers found the crates under the hut's floorboards in 2006, but they were too deeply embedded in ice to be dislodged.

The New Zealanders agreed to drill the ice to try to retrieve some bottles, although the rest must stay under conservation guidelines agreed to by 12 Antarctic Treaty nations.

• Ernest Shackleton hut on Cape Royds Antarctica

Mr Fastier said: "The unexpected find of the brandy crates, one labelled Chas Mackinlay & Co and the other labelled The Hunter Valley Distillery Limited Allandale (Australia) are a real bonus."

Ice has cracked some of the crates and formed inside them. Mr Fastier said that would make extracting the contents delicate, but the trust would decide how to do so in coming weeks.

Richard Paterson, master blender at Whyte & Mackay, whose firm supplied the Mackinlay's whisky for Shackleton, described the find as "a gift from the heavens for whisky lovers".

He added: "If the contents can be confirmed, safely extracted and analysed, the original blend may be able to be replicated.

"Given the original recipe no longer exists, this may open a door into history."

Mr Paterson intends to recreate the whisky at Whyte & Mackay's Glasgow blending room by analysing the content and replicating the mix. If the experiment is successful, original McKinlay whisky could be put back on sale.

He said: "It's been laying there lonely and neglected. It should come back to Scotland where it was born."

Shackleton, an Anglo-Irishman, set off in an attempt to reach the South Pole in 1907 and took 25 crates of whisky to raise the team's spirits and keep them warm. He gave up, defeated by harsh conditions, just days from the pole.

When a rescue ship arrived in 1909 to pick his men up they left their supplies behind in their hut at Cape Royds, including reindeer-skin sleeping bags, tins of boiled mutton and bottled gooseberries. They also abandoned the whisky in the snow outside the hut.