101 YEARS OLD AND STILL IMBIBING A GRAIN OF TRUTH...

OF ALL sports, cricket has always seemed to me to be the most useful in equipping players with the skills and outlook that will benefit them in later life. Any game at which one can exert oneself fully for five days, then call a draw because it is raining, gives one the equanimity to cope with any circumstances one may encounter.

My feelings to that effect have been confirmed by meeting Andy Watts, who played cricket for Derbyshire (mostly in the second XI) in the 1980s and has gone on to become one of the world’s most acclaimed whisky distillers. And it all happened more or less by accident, as he explained when leading a tasting in London of Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky last week.

Let me say, at the outset, that I have never been much of a whisky man. Given the choice, I will always opt for Laurent-Perrier Ultra Brut Champagne, which never fails to strike me as a supremely civilised drink. My winter breakfasts however have long consisted of porridge with blueberries and a honey and whisky sauce, which I believe acts as a far better flu vaccine than anything the NHS can offer.

As I quickly learnt at the tasting however Bain’s pure grain whisky is far too good to pour into porridge, as Andy Watts quickly showed. We began by tasting the pure spirit as it emerges after distillation. It looked like water and tasted surprisingly rich. Then we sipped the result of leaving it in an old American bourbon barrel for two years, which left it emerging much darker and tasting far richer, and then left for another three years in an ex-bourbon cask which had only been used once.

Finally a second maturation takes place, letting the whisky interact with the wood to gain a remarkable smoothness and bewildering rounded flavours of vanilla, toffee and fruits.

This, I realised, was far too good for porridge. But let us get back to Andy Watts, who is the chief distiller and master blender at Bain’s.

As he explained, it all began with cricket. He was playing for Derbyshire in the summer and looking for a way to spend the colder months when a colleague invited him to come and play for a provincial side in South Africa. The pay was worse than in the English county game but his South African team arranged for him to be offered a job with a local distillery to make up the difference.

As a whisky lover, Andy quickly agreed and when, a couple of years later, Derbyshire ended his contract, he became full-time master distiller and master blender at Bain’s, several times winning the award for World’s Best Grain Whisky.

I asked Andy what skills from his cricketing career had carried over into the new job. He thought for a moment, then said: “coaching and captaincy,” which he explained gave him the man-management skill to lead a team at the distillery and help them acquire the necessary techniques and abilities.

The Battle of Waterloo may, or may not, have been won on the playing fields of Eton, but the Battle for the Best Grain Whisky was definitely won on the cricket pitches of Derbyshire.