We recently posted about the world’s oldest champagne found on the Baltic seabed. While not as old, yet equally historic, a case of Shackleton’s Whisky has recently gone on display at the the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island.
In 2006, researchers in the Antarctic discovered three crates of whisky and two of brandy entombed in ice under a small wooden hut used by the expedition led by Ernest Shackleton. The whisky and brandy were among the goods salvaged from Skackleton’s ship Endurance when it was trapped in ice and crushed in the Weddell Sea in 1915. One case of whiskey was retrieved earlier this year and recently put on display. The whisky is being slowly thawed and will be tested and analysed.
Whyte & Mackay, the company that owns the original distiller of the whisky, is hoping to possibly recreate its long-lost recipe. The museum has put up a blog to report their progress on the slow thaw – The Great Whisky Crate Thaw.