Shackleton's Whisky Goes Home: Century-Old Scotch Flown Out Of Antarctica

[demmiblue]

LONDON — Some people brag about serving scotch whisky that's 15 years old. But three bottles of Mackinlays scotch flown to Scotland by private jet Monday date back to the late 19th Century.

The bottles are linked to famed explorer Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod expedition in 1907. They were found last year in a crate that had been buried beneath a basic hut Shackleton had used during his dramatic excursion, more formally known as the British Antarctic Expedition.

The crate itself was, unsurprisingly, frozen solid after more than a century beneath the Antarctic surface.

But the precious bottles were found intact, and researchers could hear the whisky sloshing around inside. Antarctica's minus 22 Fahrenheit (-30 Celsius) temperature was not enough to freeze the liquor, dating from 1896 or 1897, and experts said it was in remarkably good condition.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/17/shackletons-whisky-antarctica_n_810103.html

[sellitman]

1. Cheers!

I'd love to know how this stuff tastes after all these years.

[Deep13]

2. Um, no, not really.

Whisky stops aging when it is removed from the barrel and bottled. That's why it is sold as so many years old rather than with a specific date like wine is. So what they found was ten or twelve year old Scotch that has been sitting frozen for a century.

[NBachers]

3. Well there's a Scotch adventure story

I vaguely remember a story about a stash of cigars in Ireland that came from a shipwreck or something. They were very old, but still smokable. They were kept in a stone chamber at the right temperature and humidity. I tried Googling "Irish shipwreck cigars" but didn't find anything.

[old mark]

4. K&R- Don't let Boner near any of it.....nt