Ancient Scotch now off Antarctic ice

LONDON - Some people brag about serving Scotch whisky that's 15 years old. But three bottles of Mackinlays scotch flown to Scotland by private jet Monday dating back to the late 19th century are about 115 years old.

The bottles were part of the supplies packed to Antarctica for famed explorer Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod expedition in 1907. They were found last year in a crate that had been buried beneath a basic hut Shackleton had used during his dramatic excursion, more formally known as the British Antarctic Expedition.

The bottles, part of a cache of 11 bottles found, were judged too valuable to be returned to Scotland on a commercial flight - for reasons frequent travelers can understand -- so they were flown back in the private jet of Vijay Mallya, owner of Whyte & Mackay's, which bought the Mackinlays firm some years ago.

When discovered, the crate the bottles were in was frozen, but the scotch was still sloshing.

The Mackinlays whiskey will be studied and tasted in a lab for six weeks before being returned to Shackleton's hut under the floorboards of Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds on Ross Island, near Antarctica's McMurdo Sound.

The lab findings will be sent to the Antarctic Heritage Trust.