I’m looking for three people – one to come along and liveblog the event, one to film with their handheld camera (a Flip or Kodak Zi8) and one to tweet from the event during the day, letting everyone know what they see.

We’ll have people tweeting away as well, but it’s always nice to have other points of view.

You don’t need to just follow me or the Whyte & Mackay team around but would be expected to cover the event and upload during the day. And I’m sure we can sneak in a little bottle of something as a thank you at the end of the day.

If you fancy it, drop an email over to our digital and social media guy before 5pm Friday September 3.

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Even if you can’t make it along, you can join in the fun. Post a picture online of trying your best to look like me and I’ll pick one and send them a signed bottle of the 40 year old. Feel free to even post a link to your pic in the comments section below…

Of course, now that I know about this, it would serve you all right if I shaved my ‘tache off on the morning of Whisky Live!

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I meant to mention this before. At the fantastic Tales of The Cocktail in New Orleans there was some chat with Tom Fischer from The BourbonBlog, including a very unusual whisky challenge for me. So have a watch, we might challenge people to do this at some point…

Click here to view the embedded video.

And before I forget, many thanks to everyone who helped look after me when I was over. A great time was had and many thanks!

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You can view the 722 lots in the auction by clicking this link.

Be interesting to see what it all sells for…

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I’m told that the shoulder label says

British Antarctic Expedition
1907
Ship Endurance

while the bottle reads:

Rare Old
Highland
Malt Whisky

Blended and Bottled by
Chas. Mackinlay & Co
Blenders and Distillers
Leith and Inverness

(click on the pic for a very hi-res image)

I’m saying nothing about my previous prediction but for those interested in more here’s the press release that’s being issued today about the whisky…

Shackleton’s whisky revealed

After much anticipation, the contents of a whisky crate from Ernest Shackleton’s 1908 British Antarctic (Nimrod) Expedition have been revealed today.

A team of Antarctic Heritage Trust and Canterbury Museum conservators have been examining and working on the crate for the last two weeks in a purpose built cool room. As the ice inside gradually thawed the team was able to examine the contents, and today they extracted several intact bottles labelled “Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky”.

“It’s been a delicate and slow process but we are delighted to be able to confirm that the crate contains intact bottles of whisky,” said Lizzie Meek, Antarctic Heritage Trust Artefacts Manager.

Eleven bottles of the 114-year old whisky have been recovered of which remarkably ten appear perfectly intact despite their labels having deteriorated. The wording “British Antarctic Expedition 1907 Ship Endurance” is still visible on some of the bottles. As it transpired Shackleton never changed the name of the ship Nimrod to Endurance for this expedition.

Intriguingly, one bottle is missing from the packing inside the crate. This is consistent with where the crate itself appears to have been jimmied open and the timber broken. “Perhaps one of Shackleton‟s crew just couldn‟t resist a tipple,” said Ms Meek.

Each of the bottles will be carefully assessed and conserved in the coming weeks.

The Antarctic Heritage Trust plans to work with the owners of the Mackinlay‟s brand, Whyte and Mackay, to extract and analyse the whisky. “The ultimate aim is to replicate the original blend so that whisky drinkers the world over can enjoy this gift from the whisky gods. There is much to do before we know if this is possible” said Richard Paterson, Whyte & Mackay’s master blender.

Images of the whisky bottles and video of the conservators at work can be seen in the project blog set up at http://whiskythaw.canterburymuseum.com/

It is expected the crate and its contents will remain on display at Canterbury Museum for the next month. Following conservation and analysis the intention is to eventually return them to Antarctica.

-ends-

Contacts

Nigel Watson, Executive Director, Antarctic Heritage Trust, Tel +64 (3) 358 0212, M +64 (0) 21 432 104. www.nzaht.org

Karin Stahel, Communications Manager, Canterbury Museum, Tel +64 (3) 366 9429 ext: 869 kstahel@canterburymuseum.com

Contact for HD footage of the crate’s discovery and excavation from Antarctica

Emma Smithies, Senior Legal and Business Affairs Executive, Talkback Thames, London, England, Tel +44 207 691 6848 emma.smithies@talkbackthames.tv

Background

New Zealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust cares for the four iconic expedition huts in the Ross Dependency including Ernest Shackleton‟s only Antarctic base which is at Cape Royds, Ross Island, Antarctica.

Canterbury Museum is located on Rolleston Avenue, in the Cultural Precinct, next to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens and opposite The Arts Centre on Worcester Boulevard. General admission to the Museum is free; donations are appreciated.

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(click on the image for a full-size version)

And well done to Glencairn for being shortlisted for the Orange National Business Awards for small-medium business. Good luck!

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Much to our surprise we found 11 bottles in the crate – one straw cover was empty! And, it was a cover tucked in at the back of the crate, inaccessible through the ice layer. So, some speculation amongst the team – was the bottle removed hastily, leaving the cover behind, or did someone extract a bottle and leave the cover in place, hoping the disappearance wouldn’t be noted?

The bottles are now out the crates – click on the pics below to go to the blog and see how close they are to revealing the bottles in all their glory…

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But it’s this picture that really captured my attention. It was posted it yesterday but it wasn’t until afterwards I was able to take a good look at it:

Let’s close up and look at the top of the bottle:

That’s a seal covering that goes round the cork and top of the bottle. The red marking is a red wax seal that was popular in the day as an eye-catching tactic (even back then marketing types were interfering with the whisky!)

Now the bottle is on the side so there’s a chance that the whisky may have eroded the cork but the seal covering may have prevented leakage. Though I’ll add that the seals are rarely water or airtight. The ones in the old bottles in my tasting suite are very loose.

Now after seeing this picture I went and had a look around the office and my tasting suite. Now I only had a camera phone to hand but based on a few bottles (and I’ll share some pictures in a moment) I think we’re looking at a single malt – not a blend – aged 12 years old.

Here’s some pictures from one of the bottles I was looking at to show the similarities (there were others, but I was time pushed). Now the fact that the seal is intact is promising, so when the bottle is finally removed, it bodes well for the whisky inside. And for those wondering, yes, each bottle was packed in straw and the dark matter around them is caused by volcanic ash (or so I was told).

Click on each picture for a larger version.

Of course I could be completely wrong as I’m going on looks of the top of a bottle and what I know from historical information, so we’ll have to stay tuned to find out…

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Of course we’ll have to wait and see what the implications are for the bottle being on the side like that – has the whisky reached the cork and perhaps partially eroded it? Has the ice and water got inside the whisky?

Such mysteries still to find out!

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