This file photo shows the crates of Mackinlay's Scotch whisky
that were excavated from beneath British explorer Ernest
Shackleton's hut in Antarctica. Antarctica-bound explorers would
be wise to bring a case or two of Scotch whisky to endure chilly
nights. Ernest Shackleton was wise. In fact, the Scotch he
packed for the Nimrod's 1907 attempt to reach the South Pole was
exceptional, according to distillers who sampled and re-created
the drink. Low on supplies and hungry, the expedition was forced
to evacuate about 100 miles shy of its goal. When the crew
departed Cape Royds, they left behind equipment and goods,
including three cases of Mackinlay's "Rare Old Highland Malt
Whisky" that was stashed in the ice beneath a hut. And there it
sat until the Antarctic Heritage Trust discovered it in 2006,
nearly 100 years later. In 2010, chemists and distillers with
Whyte & MacLay, Ltd., which now owns Mackinlay's, got their
hands on a few bottles and sampled a dram. "The whisky had been
in deep freeze ever since it wa