Mackinlay’s Shackleton Rare Old Highland Malt - The Journey

MACKINLAY'S THE JOURNEY BOTTLING NOTE

The story behind Mackinlay's The Journey whisky is about the discovery of a cache of Mackinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt whisky that was frozen under the Antarctic ice. Mackinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt was originally distilled at Glen Mhor distillery in Inverness, Scotland. It was a whisky much enjoyed throughout the late 19th century, and was personally selected by Ernest Shackleton to help sustain his British Antarctic Expedition of 1907.

Mackinlay’s has been bottled in numerous guises over the last two centuries, with blended Scotch, vatted malt and single malt all bottled under the brand. By the early 1880s the brand was the 11th best-selling Scotch in the UK, led by Mackinlay’s Legacy, which was bottled at 12, 17 and 21 years of age, and The Original Mackinlay. At the time, The Original contained ‘no less that 34% malt’, the majority of which was from Speyside. Although the name has changed to Mackinlay’s Original, the same recipe is still adhered to today by Whyte & Mackay’s master blender Richard Paterson.

That 2007 discovery of whisky left in Antarctica by Sir Ernest Shackleton during his famous expedition in the early 1900s led to Richard 'The Nose' Paterson using all his skill and experience to recreate this historic whisky in 2011, raising £250,000 for the Antarctic Heritage Trust in the process.

Approached by the charity and Alexandra Shackleton (Ernest's grand-daughter) in 2013 to produce a second edition of his blended malt to coincide with Tim Jarvis' Shackleton Epic (the first authentic re-enactment of Shackleton's extraordinary Antarctic survival journey of 1916), how could Paterson refuse?

Digging out another rare cask of Glen Mhor (an even older one, this time from 1980), as well as some heavily-peated Dalmore(!), he once again recreated the Shackleton whisky, also using malts from Glenfarclas, Mannochmore, Tamnavulin, Ben Nevis, Aultmore, Fettercairn, Pulteney and Jura.

The resulting masterpiece of blending offers something different, whilst clearly coming from the same lineage as his first lovingly recreated malt. A new and critically-acclaimed interpretation of a truly classic whisky.

Inspired by the 2013 recreation, Paterson once again recreated the Shackleton whisky in 2023.