As part of the Rugby World Cup tournament, the British High Commissioner Vicki Treadell is hosting a business event for up to 120 local and English people at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery at 6pm, before moving on to the Proms event, which is sponsored by the commission.
The replica bottle of Mackinlay's whisky is one of 50,000 being produced, with proceeds from the auction, conducted by Dunedin media identity Dougal Stevenson, being donated to the Southern Sinfonia's Education Academy.
Mrs Treadell's previous posting was as deputy high commissioner in Mumbai. She knew well-known Indian businessman Dr Vijay Mallya, whose company bought Whyte and Mackay, which owns Mackinlay's. Dr Mallya assisted in repatriating three bottles of Shackleton's whisky to Scotland for scientific analysis aboard his private jet.
Mrs Treadell hopes the rugby tournament will reconnect trade links between the United Kingdom and Dunedin; and be used to promote trade to both Europe and Asia using established British links in both areas.
Three cases of the Mackinlay's whisky were discovered in the Antarctic in 2007. The Antarctic Heritage Trust, of which Mrs Treadell is a member, spent the next four years painstakingly thawing and preserving the bottles and whisky under controlled laboratory conditions.
The whisky was analysed by Whyte and Mackay's master blender, Richard Paterson, who then blended a range of malts to get an exact replica of the 100-year-old Mackinlay's whisky.
The 47.3% proof replica whisky contains whisky from a range of highland malts, including Glen Mhor, produced at what was the original Mackinlay's distillery before it closed in 1983.
