[guide.chat] ice with that wisky sir

From: "harold kitching" <harold.kitching01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "guide chat" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2013 15:32:47 -0000
Sunday, Jan 20 2013 
Ice with that whisky sir? Three bottles of rare 19th century Scotch returned to 
Shackleton's Antarctic hut after experts recreate long-lost recipe
Distiller first flew them to Scotland to recreate long-lost recipe
Shackleton's stash was discovered frozen in ice by conservationists in 2010
PUBLISHED: 17:21, 19 January 2013 UPDATED: 19:15, 19 January 2013 
Explorer: Ernest Shackleton buried whisky bottles when he abandoned his 
desolate hut in the Antarctic to set off on an expedition 
Explorer: Ernest Shackleton buried whisky bottles when he abandoned his 
desolate hut in the Antarctic to set off on an expedition
Three bottles of rare 19th century Scotch whisky left behind by Antarctic 
explorer Ernest Shackleton have finally been returned to his desolate snowbound 
base.
They came home today after a distiller first flew them to Scotland to recreate 
the long-lost recipe.
But not even New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who personally returned the 
stash, got a taste of the contents of the bottles of Mackinlay's whisky.
They were discovered 102 years after the explorer was forced to leave them 
behind and buried them under floorboards 
'I think we're all tempted to crack it open and have a little drink ourselves 
now,' Mr Key joked at a ceremony handing over the bottles to Antarctic Heritage 
Trust officials at New Zealand's Antarctic base on Ross Island.
The whisky will be transferred in March from Ross Island to Shackelton's 
abandoned hut at Cape Royds and replaced beneath it as part of a programme to 
protect the legacy of the heroic era of Antarctic exploration from 1898 to 1915.
Bottled in 1898 after the blend was aged 15 years, the Mackinlay bottles were 
among three crates of Scotch and two of brandy buried beneath a basic hut 
Shackleton had used during his dramatic 1907 Nimrod excursion to the Antarctic. 
The expedition failed to reach the South Pole but set a record at the time for 
reaching the farthest southern latitude. Shackelton was knighted after his 
return to Britain.
The bottles of rare 19th century whisky, pictured, were discovered 102 years 
after the explorer was forced to leave them behind 
The bottles of rare 19th century whisky, pictured, were discovered 102 years 
after the explorer was forced to leave them behind
A crate of the rare Mackinlay's whisky found under the floorboards of 
Shackleton's hut 
A crate of the rare Mackinlay's whisky found under the floorboards of 
Shackleton's hut
Snow home: The interior of Ernest Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds, where he 
buried the crates of whisky under the floorboards 
Snow home: The interior of Ernest Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds, where he 
buried the crates of whisky under the floorboards
Snowbound: Ernest Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, stuck on ice during his 
Imperial Trans-Atlantic Expedition of 1914-1918 
Snowbound: Ernest Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, stuck on ice during his 
Imperial Trans-Atlantic Expedition of 1914-1918
Shackelton's stash was discovered frozen in ice by conservationists in 2010. 
The crates were frozen solid after more than a century beneath the Antarctic 
surface.
Gravestone: The final resting place of explorer Ernest Shackleton at Grytviken, 
South Georgia 
Gravestone: The final resting place of explorer Ernest Shackleton at Grytviken, 
South Georgia
But the bottles were found intact - and researchers could hear the whisky 
sloshing around inside. Antarctica's minus 22 Fahrenheit (-30C) temperature was 
not enough to freeze the alcohol.
The bottles remained unopened as they were returned Saturday - if Shackleton 
couldn't have a dram, no one could - but their contents nevertheless formed the 
basis for a revival of the bend.
Distiller Whyte & Mackay, which now owns the Mackinlay brand, chartered a 
private jet to take the bottles from the Antarctic operations headquarters in 
the New Zealand city of Christchurch to Scotland for analysis in 2011.
The recipe for the whisky had been lost. But Whyte & Mackay recreated a limited 
edition of 50,000 bottles from a sample drawn with a syringe through a cork of 
one of the bottles. 
The conservation work of the Antarctic Heritage Trust has received £5 for every 
bottle sold.
The original bottles had flown in two combination-locked containers with the 
New Zealand prime minister to Antarctica in a U.S. Air Force transport plane 
from Christchurch on Friday.
Antarctic Heritage Trust manager Lizzie Meek, who was part of the team that 
found the whisky, recalled its pleasant aroma.
'When you're used to working around things in that hut that perhaps are quite 
decayed and some of them don't have very nice smells, it's very nice to work 
with artifacts that have such a lovely aroma,' Meek told the ceremony by radio 
from explorer Robert Scott's Antarctic hut which she is restoring.
'And definitely the aroma of whisky was around very strongly.'
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[guide.chat] ice with that wisky sir

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