Monday, February 8 2010

Whisky, On the Rocks

There's a face that could use a wee dram

In addition to my day job in the wine industry I have many other interests, including beer, whisky, tequila. brandy, rum, gin, champagne and virtually all other fermented beverages. It's not so much that I'm a lush (I do have aspirations that way, but I'm modest about my talents). It's more that the history of civilisation is the history of alcohol. After all, neolithic hunter-gatherers didn't settle down to farm because they were hungry for a steaming bowl of grit-laden, mouldy gruel: they planted grain to make beer! Similarly, the Romans didn't conquer territory because they had better soldiers, boots, roads or organisation: they conquered territory with an agricultural system hinged on the production of high volumes of wine.

So what with my day job, my avocations and my keen interest in history (just finished Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol by Iain Gately--not a bad read, although his preoccupation with the minutiae of politics left me cold) I'm always on the watch for interesting booze news. Today, BBC news announced Shackleton's Whisky Recovered.

For those who don't know who Shackleton was, I feel despair for our educational system. He's up there with Amundsen, Scott, Mallory and other great explorers who dared to boldly go where no man had gone before. His biography and deeds are too long to list (and he was a very complex man with a lot of irons in the fire--he's even the subject of a style of corporate leadership today!) but he was part of the great heroic age of Antarctic exploration, the first man to see many of the sights of the southern polar cap.

Just park 'er right there

He's perhaps best remembered for a disaster, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Trapped in the Antarctic ice he managed to get all his men to safety, despite terrible hardships and with incredible feats of heroic endurance. But in more pleasant times he headed another expedition to Antarctica, where despite his failure to reach the south pole, he did some jolly good exploring. However, he left behind more than foot prints and barely twist wrappers. According to the BBC story five crates of whisky were found under his expedition shed:

They were buried beneath Shackleton's Antarctic hut, built in 1908 for a failed expedition to the South Pole.

Some of the crates have cracked and ice has formed inside, which means experts will face a delicate task in trying to extract the contents.

The ice-bound crates were first discovered three years ago.

The master blender at whisky company Whyte and Mackay said the find was a "gift from the heavens" for whisky lovers.

Richard Paterson, whose firm supplied the Mackinlay's whisky for Shackleton, said: "If the contents can be confirmed, safely extracted and analysed, the original blend may be able to be replicated.

"Given the original recipe no longer exists this may open a door into history."

Now that, if you'll forgive the pun, is pretty cool. Not only is there a historic record of what Scottish Whisky tasted like from 100 years ago, it's a piece of living history from one of the last great ages of exploration. Unless Neil Armstrong left a six-pack in the Sea of Serenity, this is probable the best-preserved example of vintage booze we'll ever see.

And I'll drink to that. 

Posted by Tim O'Shanter AT 4:33PM

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