ICE ICE BABY

I am continuing my virtual journey south through Argentina, but where I'm headed has no cities, no capital, no native population, no countries and it's pretty inhospitable, but does it have gin?  Technically not and even though there are a few plants and seaweed about, which could possibly be used as as a local botanical for a gin, it's a protected territory and governed internationally through the Antarctic Treaty system, so no can do!  However, I do have a gin in my collection that is inspired by and honours a legendary explorer, Tom Crean, and I therefore think that counts.  I promised this was a world tour, so I'm ticking another continent off  - Antarctica! 

Now whilst they say tourism is actually booming in Antarctica, it's somewhere most of us are unlikely to visit, as fares start around £10k and can even be upwards of £30k!  It's a complicated place to get to! So how did Tom get there?

It was 1901 and Tom was in Christchurch, New Zealand.  As fortune would have it, he found himself a last minute job on Discovery which had docked there for supplies and so he joined Captain Robert Scott on his 1901-4 Expedition to Antarctica.  When Scott returned on a second expedition in 1910 on Terra Nova, Tom accompanied him again.  It was a expedition fraught with problems and near disasters, even before reaching Antarctica and the race was on to try and reach the pole before a Norwegian party.  With a mixture of motors, dogs, horses and loaded sleds, Scott and his party headed for the pole, with the support teams breaking off and returning as the journey progressed.  Tom did not make the final cut of 5 to push for the pole and he and 2 other men set off back to Base Camp.  Scott's team did make the pole, but a month after the Norwegian, Amundsen and it was on his return that he and his men perished, having run out of supplies and not managing to rendezvous with any teams meant to meet them along the return journey.  Tom had not had an easy return to Base Camp either, having had to do a solo walk across the Ross Ice Shelf in order to get help and save the life of one of his group.  His bravery and endurance earned him the Albert Medal.

Tom returned to Antarctica in 1914 for a third and final time, on Endurance with Ernest Shackleton.  They never made it as the ship was stuck in the ice pack and sank, leaving them stranded for around 17 months, before Tom and a small crew made the 800 nautical mile journey to South Georgia Island to seek help.  

Tom Crean is the great uncle of Sean Crean, the founder of Pioneer Gin.  Sean is a self-employed conveyancing solicitor and lifelong gin fan, who wanted to not only honour his great uncle, but also bring to reality his vision of what a gin is supposed to be.  This was accomplished with the aid of an Italian distillery near Modena - Casoni.  There's lots of juniper in it, with mountain pine up front too, but it has sweetness coming through from orange and rosehips.  Some pink peppercorn punches through as well towards the end. The combination of botanicals smells incredible.  Are there any botanicals in this that represent Tom's expeditions to Antarctica?

There's no reference to this, but when the bodies of Scott and his party were discovered in 1912, they found with them 16kg of Glossopteris tree fossils, proving Antarctica was once warm and connected to the other continents.  Glossopteris were high latitude polar forests of the supercontinent, Pangea. Forests of trees which may have reached up to 30m tall, with wood resembling conifers or cypresses and which are said to have grown in a Christmas Tree shape, so maybe, just maybe, there is a reason for mountain pine in the botanical lineup!  The label shows the route of one of the expeditions and also a photo of Tom.  The co-ordinates on the stopper label are for Crean Glacier, which is named after Tom, and can be found along the rescue route he travelled to South Georgia island in 1916.

I've served up the recommended negroni - no faffing with this one - it's perfect 1:1:1 - but I have used Sacred Rosehip instead of Campari!

One last little tidbit which I didn't know before and nothing to do with gin, but as we just celebrated Earth Day, I thought it would be good to mention.  In 1961, Peter Scott, the only son of Antarctic explorer, Robert Scott, helped found the WWF and having inherited strong artistic talent from his mother who was a sculptor, also designed its Panda logo.  He also co-founded the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau, but that's a story for another #virtualscottishgintour!