Brandy distilled in the Hunter was discovered among five crates of spirits found in Antarctica this week, buried in the ice after they were abandoned by explorer Ernest Shackleton more than 100 years ago.

Charlton MP Greg Combet, whose great-grandfather Alexandre was a winemaker at the distillery around the time of Shackleton's voyage, said it would be fitting for the spirits to return to the Hunter.

"It's an extraordinary discovery," Mr Combet said. "It's a really special thing for the Hunter, and it'd be great to get them back."

Hunter Valley Distillery was based near Harpers Hill and founded in 1903.

The distillery encountered severe hardship with World War I and the beginning of the Great Depression.

It went into receivership in 1935, with Penfolds eventually buying the name in the 1940s.

The now-defunct distillery is still in the hands of Tyrrell's Wines, which runs the Hunter Valley Distillery vineyard as part of its Pokolbin winery.

Chief executive Bruce Tyrrell said the recovered brandy represented a major piece of the region's history producing fortified wines.

"Before World War I, this area made a lot of fortified wine not only for the area, but also for England," Mr Tyrrell said.

"If they come up for sale, as an area we should probably buy them. It's something we should hold on to as a piece of our history and I'd like to taste it too!"

The spirits were excavated from beneath Shackleton's Antarctic hut, which was built in 1908.

"To our amazement we found five crates, three labelled as containing whisky and two labelled as containing brandy," said Al Fastier of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust.

Mr Fastier previously believed there were only two crates.

"The unexpected find of the brandy crates, one labelled Chas Mackinlay & Co and the other labelled The Hunter Valley Distillery Limited, Allandale, are a real bonus."

Some of the crates have cracked and ice has formed inside, which will make a delicate job of extracting the contents.

However, Mr Fastier said the trust was confident the crates contained intact alcohol, given that liquid could be heard when the crates were moved.

Shackleton's expedition ran short of supplies on its long trek to the South Pole from Cape Royds in 1907-09 and eventually fell about 160 kilometres short of its goal.

The expedition sailed from Cape Royds rather hurriedly in 1909 as winter ice began forming in the sea, forcing equipment and supplies, including the spirits, to be left behind.