After the fire storms of the apocalypse choke the life out of our planet the cockroaches will rule as kings from thrones made of Twinkies. Everybody knows that. And yeah, sure, it’s frustrating to know they are just waiting us out. But to add insult to injury it now appears that those bumbling Blattaria might just have our whiskey to drink as well. Sigh. We can all agree that cockroaches are deplorable little bastards, but long live a good, strong drink.
Five crates of whiskey and brandy that belonged to explorer Ernest Shackleton proved the true meaning of ‘endurance’ Friday when they were recovered after being buried for more than 100 years under the Antarctic ice.
The spirits were excavated from beneath Shackleton’s Antarctic hut which was built in 1908.
Al Fastier of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust was surprised at the find, having previously believed there were only two crates. He said:
“The unexpected find of the brandy crates, one labelled Chas Mackinlay & Co and the other labelled The Hunter Valley Distillery Limited Allandale are a real bonus.”
Apparently the surrounding ice still reeked of whiskey and liquid could be heard when the crates were moved, convincing Fastier that the crates still contain intact alcohol – great news for whiskey lovers and even better news for whoever is rich enough to pay for a pull.
Richard Paterson, master blender at Whyte and Mackay, whose company supplied the Mackinlay’s whisky for Shackleton, described the find as “a gift from the heavens” for whisky lovers.
“If the contents can be confirmed, safely extracted and analysed, the original blend may be able to be replicated,” he said.
“Given the original recipe no longer exists this may open a door into history.”
[Via: AFP]
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This piece implies the whisky was discovered very recently and immediately excavated, when in fact it was discovered some time ago and excavation was debated over for months.
I know this because Emily Stone, a journalism professor of mine, published a piece in December’s “Outside” magazine with the information. At that point the various stakeholders were debating but had not yet excavated.
“Al Fastier of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust was surprised at the find, having previously believed there were only two crates.”