BACKGROUND
In 1907, Sir Ernest Shackleton set off on a trek to the South Pole from the northern Antarctic Coast in what history remembers as The Nimrod Expedition, named after his ship of the voyage.
However on the trek, the expedition ran short of supplies and into difficulties and in 1909 Shackleton and his men sailed from Cape Royds after having been within less than 160 kilometres (100 miles) short of their goal. What supplies they did have were left behind, including five crates of whisky and brandy, and they remained trapped in the ice for more than 100 years.
In 2006 a team from the Antarctic Heritage Trust discovered the spirits but were unable to remove them as they were deeply lodged in the ice. However in 2010, a team from the Antarctic Heritage Trust were able to remove a crate of the whisky from the ice and transfer it to Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand where a special lab and room were built to slowly defrost the whisky. The reason for the slow defrost is to try and preserve as much of the texture, flavour and sensation of the original whisky as possible. A quick defrost could endanger that.
Whyte & Mackay Master Blender Richard Paterson is hopeful that he will be able to recreate the original whisky once he samples it.
UPDATES
Updates on the status of the whisky will appear on Richard Paterson’s whisky blog The Master Blender and The Great Whisky Crate Thaw blog.
PICTURES
Pictures can be found on both of the aforementioned sites for bloggers and press to use. A selection are also presented below. Click on the images for higher resolution versions.
VIDEO
Video of Master Blender Richard Paterson talking about Shackleton video:
Here is a news segment on the whisky before it was removed from the island:
And this link provides video from the museum where the Shackleton whisky crate is being stored.
AUDIO
Richard has spoken to a number of organisations about the whisky, including the award-winning podcast Whiskycast and you can listen to the episode here.
PRESS RELEASES
Whisky excavated at South Pole
Shackleton’s whisky moved and thawing (includes quote from Richard Paterson)
FAQ
How did the story of the whisky come out?
Richard mentioned the whisky in his first audio and video podcasts in 2009 (iTunes link, non-iTunes link), going on to mention it in his blog and Twitter posts. The whisky online community started talking about the story immediately, followed by others online – leading to be placed on the front page of Digg – and as it spread the traditional media from across the globe picked up the story with strong interest continuing since.
What will the whisky taste like? What did it taste like?
According to Richard Paterson:
No one knows what it will taste like as it has been trapped in the ice for more than 100 years and that can have an impact on taste, texture and quality. Also, some of the bottles have been broken so there may be ice and water damage within the whisky.
As for what it used to taste like, McKinlay’s whiskies of that era were very heavily peated so I would imagine this whisky would have tasted that way.
How can you sample a whisky like this?
Richard Paterson states:
You don’t need to taste the whisky to get an appreciation of it. With more than 40 years of experience nosing and creating whiskies, I would be able to get around 95% of the taste/aroma purely from nosing it. Also, we wouldn’t need to open a bottle to do this. We could insert a very thin needle through the side of the cork and extract that way.
When will the whisky go on sale?
Richard Paterson:
A lot of factors have to be considered before any whisky goes on sale, including what we find from nosing it, if there is market desire and so on. But even if the stars lined up correctly and everything went smoothly, I wouldn’t expect a whisky on sale before 2011.
What will happen to the original crate and the whisky?
At the moment it is expected that the whisky and crate will return to the Cape Royd site at some point in the future.
How can I follow what the media have been saying?
How can I learn more?
Keep following the aforementioned blogs for updates. Richard Paterson can also be found on Twitter as can Whyte & Mackay.
You can also click on the following links for more information as it appeared on this blog:
- Whisky on Ice
- Apparently there’s whisky near the South Pole
- What would the Shackleton Whisky taste like?
- Whisky at the South Pole with pictures
- For media and bloggers: video, text and press release
- New video from Shackleton’s hut
- Whisky now off the rocks
- Latest on the Shackleton whisky
- Latest Shackleton pic is biggest tease yet
- Is this the Shackleton whisky identified?
What if I have a question?
Head over to the Ask Richard page. We’ll update this FAQ as well from time to time.
[...] Shackleton South Pole Whisky [...]