Kiwi museum thawing 100-year-old whisky

Cantebury (South Island, New Zealand),J - A New Zealand museum is slowly thawing a crate of Scotch whisky that was retrieved in a frozen state from Antarctic ice after more than a century.

Four of the crates were left in the ice, but one labelled Mackinlay’s whisky was brought to the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island, where officials said it was being thawed in a controlled environment.

An Antarctic Heritage Trust team that was restoring the explorer’s hut found the crates in 2006, but couldn’t immediately dislodge them because they were too deeply embedded in the ice.

Drinks group Whyte and Mackay, the Scottish distillery that now owns the Mackinlay’s brand, launched the bid to recover the whisky for samples to test and potentially use to relaunch the defunct Scotch.

Ernest Shackleton’s expedition ran short of supplies on its long ski trek to the South Pole from the northern Antarctic coast in 1907-1909 and turned back about 100 miles short of its goal.

The expedition sailed away in 1909 as winter ice formed, leaving behind supplies - including the whisky and brandy. (ANI)