Do you research techniques involve analyzing your subject in a fashion similar to this...
Posted on 10/26/2009 6:07:49 PM PDT by xzins
CAPE ROYDS, Antarctica — This spit of black volcanic rock that juts out along the coast of Antarctica is an inhospitable place. Temperatures drop below –50 Fahrenheit and high winds cause blinding snowstorms...
But if you happen upon the small wooden hut that sits at Cape Royds and wriggled yourself underneath, you'd find a surprise stashed in the foot and a half of space beneath the floorboards. Tucked in the shadows and frozen to the ground are two cases of Scotch whisky left behind 100 years ago by Sir Ernest Shackleton after a failed attempt at the South Pole.
Conservators discovered the wooden cases in January 2006. They were unable to dislodge the crates, but are going in with special tools in January during the Antarctic summer to try to retrieve them. An international treaty dictates that the crates, and any intact bottles that are inside, remain in Antarctica unless they need to be taken off the continent for conservation reasons. The whisky's condition after a century of freezing and thawing is unknown...
Shackleton turned around 97 miles short of his destination, telling his wife, "I thought you’d rather have a live donkey than a dead lion." When the ship arrived in 1909 to pick the men up, they left their supplies behind in their hut, including reindeer sleeping bags, tins of boiled mutton and bottled gooseberries. And, as we now know, they also abandoned two cases of Charles Mackinlay & Co. whisky.
(Excerpt) Read more at globalpost.com ...
Do you research techniques involve analyzing your subject in a fashion similar to this...
There is no telling what those kinds of extreme temperatures would do to the whiskey, assuming that the bottles remained intact and sealed.
I’d volunteer to taste it....
:>)
That cracked me up. Thanks for taking the time.
That’s some serious Scotch on the rocks.
Not sure. Pure ethanol freezes at like -175 degrees F. I would imagine that whiskey would freeze at a much higher temp. Say...-60? Just a guess.
>>>Yes; just what we need - a One World Government to tell us riff raff what to do - or not do. Hell, maybe we shoulda followed Chamberlain’s lead and gone with Mr. Hitler...
Since this story is about liquor, we can hope you are merely posting while drunk.
Richard Paterson, master blender at Whyte & Mackay, the Glasgow whisky company that now owns the Mackinlay label, is eager to learn of the whisky's fate. He's equally hopeful that he gets to taste some of it.
He has a 1907 letter from Shackleton acknowledging receipt of the cases, along with a photograph of the bottles' label. The company may have donated the cases, which Paterson said cost 28 shillings each, as polar explorers came looking for sponsors for their trips, which were usually run on tight budgets. "Shackleton has been one of my heroes for many years," he said. "It's nice to think that perhaps we helped him when his other spirits were down, that our spirits kicked him up a wee bit."
Paterson said he'd expect that when bottled, the whisky was heavy and peaty, which was the style in that era. He'd like to sample it by sticking a needle through the cork and extracting some of the liquid with a syringe. If the bottles stayed airtight — a big if since the corks may have shifted as they were expanding and contracting with the changes in temperature — the whisky would likely taste much as it did in Shackleton's day, Paterson said.
A whisky's flavor develops as it's aged in barrels because air is able to reach it. Once it's bottled and cut off from external oxygen, it stops changing in taste. If oxygen was sneaking back into the bottles, the whisky would have continued aging and could have started to go bad, much like food that's left out too long.
Even if the bulk of the bottles remain in Antarctica for historic reasons, Paterson is hopeful that a couple can be returned to the company. One would go in the Mackinlay family archives and the other could be auctioned off, he said.
A few bottles of frozen one year old scotch? I can do that by tomorrow.
I think you can get a movie from Amazon with actual footage from the expedition.
If you can freeze vodka, why not scotch? But I will surrender my portion to those who fancy the stuff. I’m just a wimpy, red wine drinker.
They have found four, no three, we are now told they have found two bottles of 100 year old Scotch at the site of the Shackleton expidition campsite. Details to follow....
Thanks for the response. That is one cool website. It’s in my favorites now.
bump
They had the Shackleton Exhibit up here in Massachusetts at the Peabody Essex Museum, which is a great nautical and overall museum.
He ranks as one of the singular leaders of men, of all time. If you wanted to see how to lead men, that is how it is done.
Those men were an exceptionally good crew with high morale to begin with, so that made his job easier, but even easier was beyond what most men have ever done.
“God almighty, the newsmedia can’t get one fucking thing right.”
No, they got that right. The reference is to Shackleton’s earlier 1909 expedition that got within 97 miles of the South Pole. The expedition you’re referring to was in 1914.
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