By Andrew Starke
It has been a good week for comebacks with old hauls of Scotch whisky and champagne recovered while a US brewery has recreated a 9000 year-old beer.
A crate of Scotch whisky discovered beneath a hut built by British explorer Ernest Shackleton during his 1908 Antarctic expedition is being analysed by museum officials in New Zealand.
The Mackinlay’s whisky is being tested at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch with Whyte & Mackay, the Scottish distillery that presently owns the Mackinlay’s brand, believed to be considering relaunching the defunct Scotch.
Further afield, wine experts are claiming that bottles of 230-year old champagne found by divers at the bottom of the Baltic Sea are still drinking well.
The 30 bottles are thought to be Veuve Clicquot and were discovered at a depth of 55 metres. If the early testing is confirmed, the discovered bottles would contain by far the oldest drinkable champagne in the world.
In the US a brewer has recreated an ancient beer after analysing Neolithic pottery found in China.
Chateau Jiahu is brewed from wildflower honey, Muscat grapes, barley malt, hawthorn fruit and chrysanthemums.