The first Recreation consisted of 50,000 bottles that sold out worldwide in a record setting matter of months! With such a massive response, it was dubbed the "whisky story of the century” and even National Geographic did a 60 minute special on the recreation. Given the success, NZAHT requested a second run of whisky to be produced by Whyte & Mackay. This is what resulted in "The Enduring Spirit” otherwise known as "The Journey” release.
The History:
Sir Ernest Shackleton was an explorer from the 19th century set on exploring the South Pole. He made three expeditions total. His most famous was his the third expedition, where he made preparations for what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, in 1914–17. Disaster struck this expedition when its ship,Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed before the shore parties could be landed. There followed a sequence of exploits, and an ultimate escape with no loss of human life, that would eventually assure Shackleton’s heroic status. Modern day books and even a movie have chronicled the event. More important to us whisky lovers was his second expedition dubbed the Nimrod Expedition after his ship at the time. The year was 1909 and Shackleton with three companions established a base camp at Cape Royds. It is there that they buried many of their provisions before marching towards the south pole… including several cases of brandy and scotch whisky. Their march to the pole was cut short by a shortage of food and they all barely returned back to the ship in time to sail out before the ice sheets closed them in. As they were in a serious hurry to make it out, they left their base camp and remaining provisions behind. Today, the base camp remains intact and is a historical landmark preserved by the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust (NZAHT). In 2010, NZAHT was doing restoration work on the base camp to ensure its preservation. While pulling up some of the floor boards to be replaced, they discovered three cases of Mackinlay’s Scotch Whisky that had been there undisturbed for a century. While the Mackinlay’s brand no longer exists, the parent company Whyte & Mackay still does. NZAHT gave some of the whisky to museums, auctioned some of the bottles to private collectors, and sent some of them back to Whyte & Mackay for history to be recreated.