July 28: Sir Ian Botham, one of cricket’s best all-rounders from UK and till last year also the cricketing Ambassador for Hardys, launched his own ‘Sir Ian Botham’ wine label at the Lords yesterday, joining hands with Benchmark Wines, writes Subhash Arora who is very supportive of famous sports personalities like him and Vijay Amritraj and Bollywood stars bringing out their labels to popularize wine in India but feels Botham has gone steps beyond Amritraj in terms of sourcing, marketing and possibly also production, with already active interests in the Aussie wine industry
The Labels were earlier scheduled to be released at the London Wine Fair in May 2018 but the Launch finally took place at the Lords Cricket Ground, the Mecca of international cricket, just like the Indian tennis legend launched his two labels in partnership with Grover Zampa Vineyards (GZV) at Wimbledon on June 29, 2014.
The 62 year old Ian ‘Beefy’ Botham who was famous in India during the Indian stalwarts Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev era, has teamed up with Paul Schaafsma, CEO of Broadland Wineries, an international wine importer, bottler, innovator and supplier of branded and private label wines to the UK, US and Nordic markets. Incidentally, Schaafsma was the former CEO of Accolade Wines which owns the Hardys private label. Botham was the Cricketing Ambassador for Hardys till the beginning of this year. He had announced the project last year when delWine had reported it in the December 25th edition
His involvement in the wine business appears to be much higher than Vijay Amritraj who has given the Brand for production to Grover Zampa Vineyards and limits himself to blending, tastings and promoting the brand. He might possibly add more labels in collaboration with GZV as reported by delWine last month when he was in Delhi, celebrating 4 years of togetherness with GZV.
“Sir Ian is astute on wine, and he’s been around the world of wine for the last 40 years, and this year he asked me to source a range of wines from the producers he loves, using the name Sir Ian Botham for a top tier, costing between £15-20,” says Paul Schaafsma, his partner in the project.. There will be focus initially on wines from New Zealand and Australia under the brand ‘Sir Ian Botham’ due to his experience of touring these countries during his shining cricketing career, as well as his preference for wines from the New World, he reportedly added. Botham hopes to add a British bubbly in 2019 for which the producer has not been announced yet; this would be the first time a sports celebrity would be promoting domestic sparkling wine.
Botham has been vocal about his love of wine for years and already has a business interest in the Australian wine trade as part owner of the Botham Merrill Willis label, which sees cricketers Botham and Bob Willis join forces with McLaren Vale winemaker Geoff Merrill.
The inaugural selection, unveiled yesterday (July 27) in London, comprises varietal Chardonnay, Shirazes and Cabernets across three tiers, all of which are from Australia. At the entry-level is the ‘All Rounder’ retailing at £8.99, with a mid-tier range called ‘The Botham Series’ to sell in UK for £12. The top end will be ‘Collection’ and will sell for £30 to £40 as ‘Sir Ian Botham’. The grapes come from Adelaide Hills and Margaret River for the Chardonnay, and Barossa for the Shiraz and Coonawarra for Cabernet respectively.
His wine philosophy is simple. Beefy says, ‘I knew the style of wine I was looking for. I wanted to bring exceptional but fairly priced wines to the market. We have focused the first phase of our launch on Australian wines and are looking forward to presenting new origins and products in the near future. Both the ‘all-rounder’ and the ‘series’ ranges will be launched in September-October. But booking now can get special deals and offers.
Cross-Border Promotion with India
After the cross-border promotion deal that Fratelli stuck with Jean-Charles Boisset of Napa and Burgundy in March this year, there seems to be an ample opportunity for the leading producer Sula Vineyards to import the entry level wines and convince the duo of Botham and Schaafsma to get a few varietals/blends from India produced by them. Marks and Spencer has been already labelling wines made by Sula and selling them well. With Nick Pringle on the driver’s seat in Sula as the COO, and Rajeev Samant being in London significant times in a year, this seems to be an ideal situation for some cross-border promotions that will benefit both-and certainly another short step forward for the Indian wine industry.
For details, visit www.bothamwines.com
Subhash Arora
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