Bruce Anderson

The secret kinship of good wine and good cricket

...and a Bordeaux that may live to see another great West Indies side

West Indies players Shannon Gabriel, Kirk Edward, Leon Johnson, Darren Bravo and Kraigg Brathwaite Photo: Getty 
issue 25 October 2014

A high proportion of wine-lovers also enjoy cricket, and vice versa. This might seem natural. Anyone with an aesthetic temperament will surely find his way to two of life’s greatest pleasures. But there may also be a parallel. Wine is made of decomposed grapes. Vignerons conjure sublime flavours out of long-decayed fruit. As you sniff a good red Burgundy, there will always be a scent of the farmyard. Those who make the great pudding wines extract transcendent sweetness from grapes which are already rotting before they are picked.

Cricket is a beautiful and gracious game. I still have a mental picture of a cover drive by Barry Richards. He hardly appeared to move. A gentle half pace forward, a mere flick of the wrists, and the ball was rocketing to the boundary. It was like watching an outstanding fisherman casting. There appears to be no exertion. Fifteen feet of rod and 30 feet of line are just an extension of wrist and hand.

The same is true of the shotgun.

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