A FINE INNINGS – RICKY PONTING
Cricket legend Ricky Ponting shares his story about life post cricket where he has change life as a beer drinker to become an award-winning wine-maker now attracting a global audience of fans. Features Editor Ros Reines, sits down with the cricket superstar, on life after retirement, his next venture.
Ricky and Rianna Ponting’s romance blossomed over dinners in expensive restaurants and glasses of delicious, golden wine as rich as nectar.
“The first few dates we went on I was buying expensive bottles of wine to try and impress her,” Ricky admits.
The vino wasn’t exactly his favourite choice of beverage back then. He grew up in a working-class area of Tasmania.
“In my family we didn’t sit around the table enjoying a bottle of wine, it was more about beer and barbecues.”
Now 21 years later, the low-key cricketing legend, 48, (the most successful captain in international cricket history), is still trying to impress his wife and the mother of his three children with the perfect white wine.
“Ben Riggs and I are not quite there yet, but we’re getting pretty close to the style of chardonnay that Rianna likes,” he says, during a phone interview just before leaving for India where he coaches an IPL team, the Delhi Capitals.
His success on this personal quest is undoubted as he has all the resources he needs. Ricky and Rianna Ponting now have their own wine company – the multi-award winning Ponting Wines.
Thanks to the skill of the critically acclaimed South Australian wine maker, Ben Riggs and his team, Ponting Wines has almost as many runs on the board as ‘Punter’ himself with a total of 40 gold medals.
The brand also speaks to the couple’s dedication to their new-found industry, which has brought them even closer together. And of course, Ricky now loves his wine, but that happened decades ago when he found himself really enjoying the wines he ordered for his wife.
The first few dates we went on I was buying expensive bottles of wine to try and impress her.
“Ricky and Rianna are a lot more involved than you might expect,” says the co-founder of Ponting Wines, David Krenich – a premium wine specialist who spent 17 years working for LVMH. “Look, I’m not going to pretend that they make the wines, but we all go to South Australia and Tasmania several times a year and we’re either blending or looking at blends to put into the next vintage or talking to growers.
“Ricky knows some of the growers personally now and he has a good strong relationship with Ben. He loves being in the blending room.”
The 11 styles in the Ponting Wines range bear names that are a nod to Ricky’s cricket history, and they were painstakingly designed.
“He even made sure that the green was the exact colour of cricket’s baggy green,” says David.
It’s appropriate that the highly decorated cricketer is used to his team winning because his wine brand has been doing just that.
Ponting Wines has almost as many runs on the board as ‘Punter’ himself with a total of 40 gold medals… [Ricky] even made sure that the green was the exact colour of the cricket’s baggy green
The Ponting Wines 2018 Vintage 366 (Ricky’s Test Player Number) McLaren Vale Coonawarra Shiraz Cabernet won platinum at the prestigious Decanter Awards with a score of 96 out of 100.
“We backed that up the following year with the 2019 vintage winning gold at Decanter with a score of 95 out of 100,” comments David Krenich. “There’d be a lot of wineries with big histories who have never scored a platinum at Decanter, so it’s been pretty impressive.”
However, Ricky says that the early days of the business were not without its challenges, especially when the launch date was also the day that Victoria went into lockdown.
“During this period, it actually gave Rianna and me some purpose to get up and work on the wines together. We were home schooling the kids, but once we got them set up, it gave us a chance to become heavily involved in the business,” he says.
And right from the start it was always going to be about premium wines that would take time to develop. No one was interested in doing mass market wines that “fly out the door” and then disappear just as quickly.
“Working with David and Ben to start it all together, has been an incredible experience,” says Ricky. “We’ve learnt so much about the Australian wine industry and it’s great to be involved in something that we’re so passionate about together.”
Earlier this year, the couple travelled to Europe and spent time in a winery just out of Taormina in Sicily. They’ve also explored wine regions in France, South Africa and New Zealand, embracing every aspect of the industry.
I’ll judge the business on its longevity and how long it can produce really good quality wines.
The plan is to take Ponting Wines further into new export markets with the possibility of turning over half a million bottles. On the back of his cricketing career, the wines are already selling in the UK and on the subcontinent where Ponting Wines have recently become available at the Delhi Duty Free.
“I know that I could sell a lot more if I stood around in the airport, but that’s not possible,” Ricky jokes.
After all, he’s a man with plenty of demands on his time.
“India is such a huge market which is becoming increasingly westernized,” he says. “You start looking at the volumes of wine that are sold there and it’s quite remarkable.”
Ricky and Rianna have their own well stocked wine cellar in their Melbourne home which includes an array of the sacred Grange Hermitage wines.
Ricky received 41 bottles of Grange from Cricket Australia when he retired from the game in December 2012. Each one of the bottles has a swing tag detailing how many test match centuries he won in each game and the venue.
“It was an amazing gift from Cricket Australia,” he says, adding that he always makes a point of sharing a bottle with anyone he played with on the team. This includes former all-rounder, Shane Watson, who recently visited Melbourne with his family.
We’ve learnt so much about the Australian wine industry and it’s great to be involved in something that we’re so passionate about together.
It’s how I live my life
“I took him down to the cellar to make his choice and he found a bottle of Grange that included his team debut, so that’s the one we shared,” he says.
It’s this generosity and loyalty to his friends, which will stand Ricky Ponting in good stead in the Australian wine industry where a great camaraderie exists between winemakers and brands.
Ricky says he expects to be playing the long game.
“We were never going to get into this to make a quick buck and get out of it,” he says. “At the very beginning I said that I’ll judge the business on its longevity and how long it can produce really good quality wines.
“I can imagine one day handing it over to my son and daughters as a nice little business they may want to get involved in.”
Now, how about that other plan of his to build Rianna a chardonnay that she will love?
Ricky lets out a small sigh.
“Rianna wants a really big heavy, buttery chardonnay, but not everyone else likes that style, so we have to take that into account. We’re sort of in between at the moment. We haven’t quite got the amount of oak that she would like, but we’re definitely getting closer.”
For a man like Ricky Ponting, a natural born leader who presided over 220 victories in 330 matches, the only thing for certain is that he won’t stop until that wine is just right.
“It’s how I live my life,” he says, “I don’t go in half-cocked but if I’m in, I give it my all.”
