Master Distiller Richard Paterson Takes A Nose To Shackleton's Whisky

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jan 19th 2011 at 11:02PM

When you want to recreate a whisky from over a hundred years ago you want to have one of the best noses in the business doing the testing. Master Distiller Richard Paterson, the man behind some of the world's most exclusive whiskies including some of the pricey Dalmore blends we've covered in the past, is analyzing some of the whisky found in a crate in the Antarctic hut of renowned explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.

The whisky was first discovered in 2006 but some of it was removed last year and carefully thawed at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island. The bottles of Mackinlay's Scotch whisky had been wrapped in paper and straw to protect them. The whisky is believed to date back to 1896 or 1897.

According to BBC News, three of the bottles were returned to the Scottish Highlands on Whyte and Mackay's billionaire owner, Vijay Mallya private jet for analysis. Whyte and Mackay bought Mackinlay years ago and is considering creating a new whisky to honor the Shackleton find. Paterson has said that the whisky has a beautiful rich golden color and that his "initial reaction is very, very interesting but I must wait and see."

Tags: ernest shackleton, master distiller, richard paterson, scotch, whiskies, whisky