Botham goes into bat with his big-hitting Aussies

Ex-England all-rounder launches his own wine range with oomph-filled bottles from down under

VICTORIA MOORE

Mornington Peninsula, Adelaide Hills and Tasmania were so important to it.”

The late commentator and wine writer John Arlott was responsible for igniting Botham’s interest in wine; Botham still takes bottles to drink at his graveside. “When I was 16, I was at Somerset and he used to come and commentate from the box. It was quite rickety to get up there so I was tasked by the club secretary to take up Mr Arlott’s wicker basket – filled with beaujolais and cheeses.”

The two hit it off and, later, Botham and his wife Kathy bought a house on Alderney in the Channel Islands, where Arlott lived. “We talked about wine all the time. At four minutes past nine in the morning my phone would ring. You could set an alarm by it. I’d pick up the phone and go, ‘Morning, John,’ and he’d say, ‘What time are you coming down to the house? Come as soon as possible and bring your thirst.’”

Botham was a flamboyant batsman, and as a drinker his taste is for flavours that are big and bold. He knows what he likes: Spanish reds from Rioja and Ribera del Duero; Montes Purple Angel from Chile; cabernet sauvignon, as long as it’s from Australia – “It was always an interesting debate with Bob Willis because he’s a shiraz man.”

If someone pulled the cork on a Bordeaux Classified Growth, would you be wishing they’d just bloody well opened a Coonawarra cabernet? He nods: “Something with a bit of oomph. Bordeaux isn’t an area I really wander into. To be quite frank and honest I felt for years that the French took the mickey out of us, sent us stuff over that they wouldn’t put on their own table.”

Needless to say, Burgundy isn’t his thing either, though he does still have some bottles from a stash of 1980 and 1981 Domaine de la RomanéeConti La Tâche and Echézeaux that he bought back in the day. “I take one out a year, but it’s too light for me. Too delicate as my wife would say, ‘It’s too delicate for you.’ She likes rosé from Provence.”

All the reds in Botham’s wine range reflect his confidence and his taste for oomph, which ensures that the entry-level £8 “AllRounder” wines have plenty of fruit, and which I think plays particularly well in his 81 Series Barossa Shiraz 2017 (spot the Test references).

Unsurprisingly, the top-of-therange “Parcels” are big and powerful – none more so than the bombastic Sir Ian Botham Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 (£42.50) made by Botham’s friend Geoff Merrill, which was the only one he didn’t want to mess around with (available now for pre-order through Berry Bros & Rudd.) I particularly enjoyed the chardonnays, too – they occupy a lovely spot on the peach-lemon curd/warmth-freshness spectrum.

More Rhône in a size that’s pleasing to pour at big weekend lunches.

VIGNERONS ARDÉCHOIS, ARDÈCHE BASALTE SYRAH 2016

Sir Ian Botham’s wines are available from bothamwines.com