EXPLORE / AGE OF REASON
The next innings
He led Australian cricket through one of its most challenging eras, racking up many accolades along the way and now at 68, Allan Border is enjoying the fruits of a very different labour. Words MONIQUE BUTTERWORTH
A LATE-BLOOMING APPRECIATION for red wine, the love of golf and the bond of a close mate, has seen cricket legend Allan Border turn his considerably talented left-hand to winemaking. The former Australian cricket captain and selector turned much-loved commen- tator has released a limited-edition shiraz dubbed Maiden Tonne in collaboration with Sanguine Estate Winery in Heathcote, Victoria. But it was Allan’s great mate, fellow cricket star Dean Jones, who sadly died of a stroke while commentating in India in 2020, who got the ball rolling on the venture. “Dean was the one who started to educate me on the finer points of wine when I was around 50,” he says. “I’m a late bloomer. It’s amazing how the maturing process hits every- one in different ways. “I was a real beer drinker and I used to look at my mates carrying on about this wine and that. They would come to my place with bottles of wine and I would just stash them under the stairs where it was about 30 degrees in the summer,” he smiles. “I’ve come full circle. I still like beer but I prefer a good red wine these days.” Allan was introduced to his first bottle of Sanguine shiraz at Dean’s home at Romsey in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges. “The bottle came from
Dean’s good mate Tony Hunter, who established Sanguine Estate, alongside his wife Linda. Dean played golf with Tony at Heathcote and that’s where the connection starts,” explains Allan. “I visited Dean and played golf with Tony too. They both educated me as to the processes involved in making wine and I became a lot more interested rather than just drinking it.” Originally, Allan and Dean were set to have a wine-blending contest to see who could come up with the best red wine but sadly, with Dean’s pass- ing, the idea was shelved. That was until Tony’s daughter Jodi resurrected the idea. “Jodi got in touch to see if I was still keen to do something, so I thought, ‘Yeah, well, I’ll give it a go! I don’t know much about wine. Let’s start the process!’” says Allan. “It’s been fascinating to learn, from go to whoa, what it takes to get the wine in the bottle.” He’s had a hand in everything from picking grapes, bottling, corking, wax sealing and signing the limited-release bottles. And he has rows of vines named after him in the vineyard. “I even got down to my bare feet and had a go at grape crushing the old-fashioned way,” he says. “I’ve really enjoyed the process.” Allan says his friendship with Dean is captured in the bottle. “Dean was the one who really educated
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DARE SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2023
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