Antarctica drilling for Whiskey

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Every Breaking Wave

Every Breaking Wave

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This made me laugh. From the Associated Press.

A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whiskey that has been on the rocks since a century ago.

The drillers will be trying to reach two crates of McKinlay and Co. whiskey that were shipped to the Antarctic by British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton as part of his abandoned 1909 expedition.

Whyte&Mackay, the drinks group that now owns McKinlay and Co., has asked for a sample of the 100-year-old scotch for a series of tests that could decide whether to relaunch the now-defunct Scotch.

Workers from New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust will use special drills to reach the crates, frozen in Antarctic ice under the Nimrod Expedition hut near Cape Royds.

Al Fastier, who will lead the expedition in January, said restoration workers found the crates of whiskey under the hut's floorboards in 2006. At the time, the crates and bottles were too deeply embedded in ice to be dislodged.

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

Fastier said he did not want to sample the contents.

"It's better to imagine it than to taste it," he said. "That way it keeps its mystery."

Richard Paterson, Whyte&Mackay's master blender, said the Shackleton expedition's whiskey could still be drinkable and taste exactly as it did 100 years ago.

If he can get a sample, he intends to replicate the old Scotch and put McKinlay whiskey back on sale.

"I really hope we can get some back here," he was quoted as telling London's Telegraph newspaper. "It's been laying there lonely and neglected. It should come back to Scotland where it was born.

"Even if most of the bottles have to remain in Antarctica for historic reasons, it would be good if we could get a couple," Paterson said.
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My god. 100 year old Antartic Wiskey. That practically sounds like a gold mine right there.
 
If I were on this drill team, and I wasn't offered one of the first sips from this stash of 100 year old whiskey, I'd be piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissed.
 
Rellik said:
If I were on this drill team, and I wasn't offered one of the first sips from this stash of 100 year old whiskey, I'd be piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissed.
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You'd be pissed if you took the wiskey anyway, either way you'd ended up pissed
 
Netto Azure said:
Wouldn't you get sick drinking that? :O

Then again the temp could have preserved it. XD
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100 year old Antartic temperatures give the Whiskey a nice old flavor so I dunno I guess it preserves. Now if it where cheese or something then yeah....
 
Generally speaking, the older a spirit is, the better it tastes, and the more they charge for it. I've seen 20 year old bottles of Johnnie Walker Black selling for $200.
 
Rellik said:
Generally speaking, the older a spirit is, the better it tastes, and the more they charge for it. I've seen 20 year old bottles of Johnnie Walker Black selling for $200.
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Exactly. This stuff would go easily for 3000-4000 dollars in the top hotels. Too bad they can only excavate like 2-3 bottles.
 
Mitchman said:
Exactly. This stuff would go easily for 3000-4000 dollars in the top hotels. Too bad they can only excavate like 2-3 bottles.
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My one concern is the fact that its been frozen for so long. I doubt there's a precedent for this kind of thing, so who really knows how it'd affect the aging process.
 
Rellik said:
My one concern is the fact that its been frozen for so long. I doubt there's a precedent for this kind of thing, so who really knows how it'd affect the aging process.
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Alcohol has a much lower freezing point, so I'm not sure if the whiskey itself was frozen or not though. It could possibly be still liquid and aging very nicely!

mmm, I love some good whiskey!
 
Satoshi-kun said:
Alcohol has a much lower freezing point, so I'm not sure if the whiskey itself was frozen or not though. It could possibly be still liquid and aging very nicely!
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It all depends on what proof the whiskey is, and where exactly it's been buried. A 24 proof spirit will freeze at about 20F, which isn't that far off from the freezing point of water. An 84 proof spirit however, has a freezing point of about -30F. After doing some research, I discovered that Cape Royds is located on an island off of Antarctica's coast, and according to Wikipedia, during the Summer months, at their highest, the temperatures near the coast can range anywhere from 41F to 59F. So it's entirely possible that the whiskey has spent the last 100 years repeatedly freezing and thawing itself.
 
Maybe I can hire these guys afterwards to dig into my back fridge which hasn't been defrosted in years...

My poor spirits. :-(
 
This is so much better than drilling for oil.

Seems like it would taste good as well.
 
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