Antarctic expeditions revisited through reproduced whisky

BY SUSAN R. EATON, FOR POSTMEDIA NEWS OCTOBER 23, 2011

CALGARY — Sir Ernest Shackleton probably hadn’t planned on leaving three crates of Scotch whisky in Antarctica, and almost certainly never imagined Calgarians drinking it, one hundred years later.

But thanks to the 2007 discovery of the 19th century liquor under the floor boards of Shackleton’s abandoned Antarctic hut, whisky aficionados in Calgary recently raised a toast to the polar explorer.

They weren’t tasting the original golden malt, however, but a precise recreation — Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky — as part of a whisky tasting at Calgary’s Kensington Wine Market.

Frozen in time — in minus 30 degrees Celsius temperatures — since Shackleton’s British Antarctic (Nimrod) Expedition of 1907-1909, the whisky’s 47.3 per cent alcohol content ensured that it didn’t freeze.

Unearthed a century later by the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, the bottles were in pristine condition, making the recreation of the malt possible.
Shackleton’s whisky represents a time capsule, a window into the smoky or peaty flavour of a century before. Back then, distillers burned peat to dry the barley. Coal gradually replaced peat, and, today, hot air is used to dry the barley, producing a cleaner tasting whisky.

To recreate the lost formula from the defunct Glen Mhor Distillery, Glasgow-based Whyte and Mackay Limited, owners of the Mackinlay brand, used modern sensory, radio carbon and chemical forensic science worthy of a CSI television episode.

Combining legacy whisky produced by the distillery — it closed during the early 1980s — with the new malt, the brewers assured the authenticity of the Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky.

Only 50,000 bottles were produced in the spring of 2011, making it a hot commodity for whisky collectors and Shackleton history buffs.

According to Andrew Ferguson, Kensington Wine Market’s co-manager and “Scotch Guy,” his store received all of Alberta’s allocation of Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky. Ferguson secured 300 bottles of this light honey-coloured nectar — there are still bottles available for purchase for $195.

Whyte and Mackay is donating $8 from every bottle, to the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust to support its ongoing restoration efforts in Antarctica.

Reviewed by Malt Advocate Magazine, Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky scored a respectable 92 points. “Anything in the 90s is considered a very good score,” explained Ferguson.

“I had a misconception of what whisky from that era would have tasted like,” said Ferguson. “I was surprised by how creamy, rich and fruity it was. And, there’s a smoky element in the whisky that you don’t get in today’s whiskies from the highlands.”

The recreation began in 2010, when the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust removed a case of Shackleton’s whisky from the Antarctic permafrost, transporting it to the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch for delicate thawing.

Once the whisky was identified as the historic Mackinlay brand, Whyte and Mackay swung into action. Dr. Vijay Mallya, Whyte and Mackay’s chairman, sent his corporate jet to Christchurch to pick up three bottles of Shackleton’s original malt, whisking the precious cargo back to Scotland — in a specially built case handcuffed to Richard Paterson, Whyte and MacKay’s master blender.

“These bottles are priceless artifacts, and we had to keep them under tight security,” explained David Robertson, Whyte and Mackay’s director of rare whiskies.
One of the privileged few to sample the 100-year-old Scotch whisky, Robertson described it as “absolutely incredible.”

“I was allowed to ‘nose’ it, and got one tiny drop to taste,” he said. “Without a shadow of a doubt, tasting the whisky from the permafrost has been one of the highlights of my 30-year career.”

“Science can only tell us so much,” said Robertson of the forensic recreation process. “But what we really needed was Richard Paterson’s ‘nose’ to get us as close to the original Scotch whisky as possible.” Paterson’s olfactory asset, his “nose,” is insured for $2.4-million Cdn.

At the Calgary tasting, whisky aficionados sampled Shackleton’s malt in commemorative glasses etched with the forlorn image of Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, trapped in ice during his second voyage to the Antarctic, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-1917.

The Endurance was crushed and sank, precipitating the greatest survival story of the 20th century. Not a man was lost during the two-year rescue operation, cementing Shackleton’s reputation as a great leader.

“There’s a sense of history in the art of making a fine Scotch whisky,” said Dave Yadav, a Shackleton history buff and self-professed whisky neophyte. “And, I can’t think of another whisky that has this history.”

Enthusiastic attendees at the tasting brought their maps, books and Shackleton memorabilia, including a riveting audio tape of a lecture that Shackleton delivered on the Nimrod Expedition where he narrowly escaped death, falling 160 kilometres short of reaching his objective, the South Pole.

Yadav likened creating a fine whisky to mounting an expedition: “There’s so much preparation and so many moving parts to arrive at the destination.”

“The font used on the label was like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” he added. “The whisky represented a time gone by that we were able to enjoy.”

Yadav was right — the fonts used in the customized labels for Shackleton’s British Antarctic Expedition don’t exist today. Whyte and Mackay commissioned a specialist who painstakingly recreated the labels, drawing them by hand. The distiller’s attention to historical detail extended to the bottle, the rustic wooden crates, the paper wrap and packing materials.

“Obviously, the most challenging thing was to recreate the liquid,” explained Robertson. “But, we also wanted to recreate the glass in the bottles.”

“Each bottle is unique,” he added, describing how the distiller relaxed quality control in its factory, introducing bubbles characteristic of turn-of-the-century bottles.

Calgary Herald
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Dalmore64-Stag Whisky

Whisky investment ‘as good as wine’, says FT

• Monday 17 October 2011

Bottles of whisky from long-demolished distilleries can be as solid as wine as an investment, the Financial Times says.
The recession of the 1980s led to the wholesale closure of whisky distilleries, with the result that there are bottles around today whose distilleries are long-gone, the newspaper reported in an article last week.

Whisky writer Peter Temple says that whisky bearing names such as Glen Albyn, Glen Mhor, Milburn or Port Ellen comes from distilleries ‘that you can be sure are no more’.

Port Ellen, for example, owned by the Distillers Company, closed for good in 1983, but produced whisky that ‘is reckoned to be among the best ever made on Islay.
Such bottles fetch in the hundreds of pounds, and as they can only get scarcer, represent far better investment than the ultra-rare bottlings from still-established distilleries that can fetch tens of thousands and more.

Dalmore distillery recently sold a 62-year-old bottle for £125,000, following its bottling of the 64-year-old Dalmore Trinitas, which became the world’s first six-figure whisky last year, with two bottles, out of only three made, selling for £100,000 each.

Cheaper – but still the price of a case of 2005 Chateau Lafite – is the 60-year-old Dalmore Eos, of which 20 bottles were produced at £15,000 each.

And weighing in at £13,000, the 70-year-old Glenlivet from Gordon & MacPhail was released earlier this year.

To make such bottles work as an investment would require serious outlay, but you can start much more modestly, Stephen McGinty, whisky specialist at McTear’s auction house in Glasgow told Decanter.com.

‘Whisky is made in much smaller quantities than wine. If you get a numbered bottle from a single cask, as bottles from that cask get opened and drunk, the remaining bottles go up in value. It is also much easier to store than wine.’

McGinty gave the example of a Brora rare malt, which on release in the 1980s sold for between £20 and £40.

‘We have just sold one for £1200. So if you buy low, and play the long game, you have a very good investment.’

World's Oldest Whisky

World’s oldest whisky launched – at £10,000 a bottle

The world’s oldest single-malt whisky was launched at Edinburgh Castle on Thursday to the sound of bagpipes and accompanied by Highlander guards.
The Mortlach 70 Year Old – which will retail for £10,000 a bottle – was distilled on 15 October 1938 and then transferred to a first-fill Sherry hogshead before being bottled exactly 70 years later on 15 October 2008.

The whisky, part of Gordon & MacPhail’s Generations range, is presented in a teardrop-shaped crystal decanter with a silver stopper.

It sits on a silver base and is packaged in a Brazilian rosewood box. Only 54 full-size bottles, and an additional 162 20cl bottles are available.

The smaller bottles, packaged in exactly the same way, are priced at £2,500.

Gordon & MacPhail’s joint managing director Michael Urquhart, who described the launch as ‘a historic moment in the history of Scotch whisky’, said: ‘We believe that Mortlach 70 Year Old is a malt without comparison.

‘If the reaction of those lucky enough to enjoy a dram today is anything to go by, whisky fans and people wishing to own a unique piece of Scotland’s liquid history will be very excited about it.’

• Stuart Peskett’s tasting note

The most striking thing I found was its freshness, considering the whisky was put into barrel before World War II. The nose is fruity and smoky with a hint of burnt sugar, and the taste is powerful and peppery, but softened with notes of orange peel and apple crumble. Some older whiskies have an excess of oaky flavours, particularly those matured in first-fill casks, but the Mortlach 70 is rather sprightly, given its age.

New 70-year-old malt unveiled

A 70-year-old whisky costing more £13,000 has been released by distillers Gordon & MacPhail.

70 year old GlenLivet - £13,000 a bottle

The Glenlivet 1940 70-year-old is one of the oldest whiskies bottled in the world, the company says.

The single malt is part of Gordon & MacPhail’s Generations series, which also includes five single cask bottlings of Glenlivet from 1954, 1963, 1974, 1980 and 1991.
The Glenlivet 70-year-old – 100 decanters of 70cl and 175 decanters of 20cl – are on the market for £13,000 and £3,200 respectively.

The whisky was launched earlier this month in Edinburgh Castle, the decanter carried into the Queen Anne Room by Fiona Urquhart (pictured), the fourth generation of the family which owns and runs Gordon & MacPhail.

David Urquhart, joint managing director, said, ‘This Glenlivet cask was laid down in 1940 by my grandfather, and there are casks of whisky which I am laying down today which I will not see bottled in my lifetime. So we are very much looking after the whisky for future generations.’

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