Ponting takes a punt on making quality wines

Former Australian men’s cricket captain Ricky Ponting, has joined a group of celebrity wine makers this week to officially launch his own Ponting Wines label.

This is a joint a venture with Three Kings Merchants, part owned by former Wallaby player Nathan Sharpe and Ben Riggs, an award winning McLaren Vale winemaker.

Ponting Wine aims to prove itself as a quality wine that doesn’t just rely on the prestigious name it comes with.

"We're not just going to put the wine out there and sit back and hope that it makes us some money, we're going to give it a red-hot crack and make sure everything we do with it is as good as it can be," Ponting told goodfood.com.au. 

"It's one thing to have your name on the front of the bottle of wine but it's [another] to be heavily involved in the day-to-day running of the overall business."

James Atkinson, wine writer and host of Drinks Adventures podcast said, "not all celebrity wines are created equally". 

"At one end you have the extremely cynical, gimmicky products where a celebrity has next to no involvement with the wine, other than licensing their intellectual property in exchange for a royalty on any sales that flow from it," he said, referring to Shane Warne's short-lived wine collection in 2002.

Mr Atkinson then acknowledged celebrities such as actor Sam Neill who "clearly love wine very deeply and are involved in all aspects of their businesses". 

He continues to say that celebrities offer winemakers the chance to "cut through the clutter and appeal to consumers who feel intimidated when they enter a bottleshop and are confronted by a wall of wine with fairly homogenous branding.

"But consumers should be aware that the royalties paid to the celebrity are embedded into the price they are paying for their wine, so there is certainly better value to be had elsewhere if they do their research," he said. 

Co-founder of spirits company Four Pillars Gin, Stuart Gregor says wines endorsed by celebrities "certainly appears to be growing a head of steam right now. 

"It's a good way to cut through in a category that has too many brands that have no apparent differentiation," he said.

"Successful people in other fields have for hundreds of years owned wine businesses. It's a thing they're naturally drawn to because it's a complicated and interesting and fascinating world.

"It's one thing to love Ricky Ponting. It's a very different thing to love Ricky Ponting's wine unless it's delicious and well-crafted."

Mr Ponting seems just as surprised by this venture as anyone as he has transformed from being a beer lover to a wine connoisseur.

"I must admit never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd get to the stage where Rianna [Ponting's wife] and I would have our own wine label," he said. 

"Outside of our charity foundation, we have pretty different interests to be honest … so this was something that was a real passion project for us that we could work on together."

Ponting hopes to be successful in Australia’s major retailer market with hopes to expand overseas to countries such as India and the UK "where my name might resonate with some people.”