Daily Archives: February 6, 2010

I have a thing for history. Some don’t saying it is all in the past but to me the past decides the future.

Take for instance Red Breast Whiskey, this pure pot still whiskey which is part of the Jameson brand is a very soecial part of the past as it’s the only 12 year old Pure Pot Still available. It was first launched in 1939 as the brand name given to the pot still whiskey supplied by Jameson to whiskey bonders before bottling at the distillery became the norm in 1968. Stocks of whiskey in bonders’ stores petered out, and thus Redbreast all but disappeared until its re-launch by the distillery in the 1990s as a single pot still whiskey. It is matured for a minimum of 12 years in sherry casks and Bourbon barrels. Like all good pot still whiskeys, it is strongly flavoured and assertive, making it a rare treat for the connoisseur of fine old whiskey.

I remember many years ago offering this to someone who I thought was a real whiskey drinker. He asked for ice, I didn’t question his taste as we’re all different. I did however take exception to him asking for red lemonade as in my house it would have been blasphemy to mix your whiskey with anything put tap water. I took it back off him, I needed to save him from sin.

Red Breast is my favourite whiskey.

Ernest Shackleton the great Irish adventurer who in 1909 led the expedition that made it further towards that South Pole than anyone before. Upon his return to Britain and Ireland he was knighted by the King. A man of great courage, a leader and a lover of fine whiskey he left a few crates of his favourite drink – Chas MacKinlay – in Cape Royds before escaping the ice which could have trapped them.

Whyte & MacKay which now owns the brand intends to re-launch the whiskey once they conclude analysis on the samples recovered from the South Pole.

The Irish Independent reports:

Whisky on the rocks Polar explorer’s stash recovered

Grainne Cunningham – Irish Independent

The Irish-born adventurer left the whisky and two crates of brandy and other supplies when he sailed away with his companions from Cape Royds in 1909, barely escaping being trapped by the winter ice.

And while the same seasonal ice has cracked some of the bottles, restorers believe some bottles are intact “given liquid can be heard when the crates are moved”.

New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust team leader Al Fastier said the team thought there were two crates and were amazed to find five when they used special tools during what is currently the Antarctic summer to retrieve the crates.

The whisky, bearing the label of Chas MacKinlay and Co, was first discovered under the hut’s floorboards in 2006, but was too deeply embedded in ice to be dislodged.

Current distillery owner, drinks group Whyte & Mackay, launched the bid to recover the Scotch whisky for samples to test and decide whether to relaunch the defunct spirit made by distiller MacKinlay and Co.

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.

“Given the original recipe no longer exists, this may open a door into history,” he said.

Shackleton’s expedition ran short of supplies on its long ski trek to the South Pole from the northern Antarctic coast from 1907 to1909 and turned back about160km short of its goal.

However, they did reach magnetic South Pole and carried out valuable scientific work. No lives were lost, vindicating the Athy-born man’s decision to turn back from the pole which was first reached two years later by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.

Shackleton later said to his wife: “A live donkey is better than a dead lion.”

The team barely made it back to the ship in time in March 1909 to set sail before the winter ice began forming in the sea.

Shackleton, whose gra for a glass of whisky is well known, died of a heart attack on another expedition in January 1922, just short of his 48th birthday.

He spent the first 10 years of his life in Athy, Co Kildare where there is a museum and exhibition honouring his explorations.