Ernest Shackleton’s 137th Birthday – February 15

I know that Valentine’s Day is tomorrow and hopefully you’re able to celebrate that with a dram or two, but the very next day is Ernest Shackleton’s 137th birthday. Ernest Shackleton was a famous polar explorer who, if you’ll remember, shipped himself 25 crates of Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt for an expedition in 1907. Three of those crates were abandoned in Antarctica after the expedition was aborted and discovered a century later. Amazingly, despite being subjected to minus 30 degrees Celsius, the whisky itself was still a liquid and Master Distiller Richard Paterson, of Whyte and Mackay, recreated it, down to the label, – calling it Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt (of course!).

It only has limited US distribution but you can find out more about the whole story here. The Whisky Exchange has a great little piece on the whole thing too.

If you have a minute, this little video sums it up nicely too:

So, in celebration of Shackleton’s intrepid nature, and well preparedness, I hope you’ll raise up a dram with me this Wednesday!

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