CHILLED SCOTCH WHISKY

What will 1OO years do to whisky frozen in ice? Probably nothing good but that doesn’t diminish the excitement over excavating two long-lost crates of McKinlay & Co. Scotch. Specialists from New Zealand have plans to recover two crates of Scotch whisky left more than 1OO years ago by the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and trapped deep in Antarctic ice. A spokesman for the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust said the whisky trove had been found under a hut built at Cape Royds, a promontory on McMurdo Sound, during Shackleton’s first South Pole expedition of 19O7-19O9. The expedition ended in failure when the explorer was forced to turn back about 1OO miles from the pole. The crates and bottles are slated to undergo conservation work in New Zealand before being returned to the hut, which is being restored as a museum. While the trust has no plans to sample the whisky, Whyte & Mackay, owner of the brand, said it hoped to acquire a bottle with a view to recreating the century-old blend. It really gives new meaning to the phrase: Scotch on the rocks.