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Researchers working in the Antarctic have recovered five crates of whisky and two crates of brandy belonging to polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, who tried to reach the South Pole in the early twentieth century. The bottles have been embedded in ice for over a century. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Richard Paterson, Master Blender at Whyte and Mackay, the company that supplied the booze for Shackleton’s polar cruise.

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MARCO WERMAN:  The ravages of alcoholism are a serious problem and not just in Russia so we urge everyone who drinks to do so responsibly.  Now there is one more alcohol related story we want to tell you about. It’s an update, actually, on a new story we told you about last November.  It involved the search for some very old bottles of whiskey in Antarctica.  They had been stored in a hut used by polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.  That was over a century ago.  They had since sunk into thick ice.  Well, now five crates of Shackleton’s whiskey plus another two crates of brandy have been recovered.  In November we spoke with Richard Patterson, the Master Blender at Whyte and Mackay.  That’s the Scottish company that supplied the booze for Shackleton’s polar expedition.  Patterson was cautiously optimistic then.  Now he’s very excited about the recovery and his chances of actually sniffing and tasting the old scotch.

RICHARD PATTERSON:  Oh definitely.  I’m just gasping to taste it.  But remember, when you nose a whiskey it will tell you at least 96% of what you need to know about that whiskey.  Only when you’re wanting to be sure do you then taste it.

WERMAN:  Today’s whiskey is not what it was a century ago, so Patterson hopes to study the old stuff in a lab as well as his palate.  Eventually he would like to recreate the exact blend of Shackleton’s whiskey.  Then, maybe whiskey connoisseurs everywhere could have a taste as well; responsibly, of course.

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