By Giles Wilson BBC News Online

Unlikely sight?

Ian Botham is a bit offended by the suggestion that people might see him as a beer monster.

"I don't think anyone's thought of me as a beer man for 15 years," he says with almost a look of hurt in his eyes. "I don't think I've actually drunk a beer for 15 years, except a few Guinnesses in Dublin, where it's the law. Anyone who knows me in the business world or the cricket world will know I'm a wine man."

Beefy Botham... the man whose heroics will forever prove that the English are not necessarily useless... the hellraiser whose off-field activities got him as much coverage in the news pages as in the sport pages... a wine man? It's probably fair to say that the message hasn't spread very widely.

More like it: Botham in 1985, after his John O'Groats - Land's End walk

And yet it is the same Botham who, with his fellow hero of Headingley '81, Bob Willis, has launched a new range of wines. Botham Merrill Willis Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay are now on sale, priced �8.99, and a Shiraz is in the pipeline.

The pair join a growing list of public figures who are getting involved in wine, including Sting, Olivia Newton-John, and Mick Hucknall. Some, like Sir Cliff Richard, have actually grown the grapes themselves.

Botham and Willis insist theirs is no mere celebrity endorsement, and that theirs has been made in collaboration with Geoff Merrill, an acclaimed wine-maker based in Adelaide, Australia. Merrill befriended Willis on the Ashes tour of 1978; the three first discussed making their own wine 20 years ago.

GOLFERS TOO Also with names on bottles are Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, and Ernie Els

Botham says his motivation for getting involved is that wine has been his passion since the time when, as a "Somerset country bumpkin who liked his beer and his cider", his taste for wine started developing. Subsequent playing and commentating tours in Willis's company have given the opportunity for further education.

Icon

But on the London streets just a spittoon's distance from the home of cricket at Lord's, an impromptu taste test seemed to confirm the opinion that wine and Botham are not inextricably linked in the public imagination.

Non-plussed: Lee Ryan, Mick Burch and Stephanie Young

When asked to guess which sporting celebrity might be behind a wine like the Cabernet Sauvignon, Lee Ryan guessed Steve Davis. "Ian Botham?," he says, on learning the true identity of the celebrity vintner. "I would never have guessed that, I don't think anyone would. He's an icon!"

Painter Mick Burch got closer, when prompted that it was a cricketer. "It's nothing to do with Tufnell is it?" he said, before admitting that he would only really like the wine if it was amber and had a white head. Stephanie Young was mystified. "The only cricketer I know is called Imran. I don't suppose it's him? No probably not. How about Trevor Macdonald?"

Outstanding bottles

The attraction of celebrity endorsements for wine is as clear as for any other product. More wine than ever is being drunk in the UK - figures from the International Wines and Spirit Record earlier this year indicated a 19% increase since 1997.

Sir Cliff Richard, on the list of unlikely celebrities to put their name to wine

Anything that can make a bottle stand out on the supermarket shelves from the rows and rows of others will increase its chances. And it seems to work - Sir Cliff's Algarve red, Vida Nova, is the fastest selling wine Tesco's says it has ever stocked.

Not everyone is impressed, though. Wine writer Malcolm Gluck is critical of the added pounds a celebrity wine costs. The average bottle in the UK costs �4.65 - Sir Cliff's rings the tills at �8.49.

"I've tasted the Botham Merrill Willis, and I don't think very much of it. It's a �3.99 bottle of wine - to sell it for �8.99 is outrageous."

Gluck himself had a hand in the public perception of Botham, being the advertising copywriter behind the classic "three Shredded Wheat" commercial of the early 1980s. But he dismisses the whole fashion for celebrity wine, saying it is just about vanity. "It's men, loving having their name on things. The drinker is not served in any way, shape or form by this. It's not a way of coming by better wine."

Willis (right) "persuaded Botham the white shouldn't be stronger than 12%"

But Botham, ever the enthusiast, is unlikely to be put off by critics, just as he appears unworried by the possibility that launching a range of "BMW wines" might conceivably arouse the interest of trademark lawyers employed by a luxury German car manufacturer.

"What's there to object to?" he says, as if laughing in the face of a lawsuit. "It's our names, in alphabetical order. If they want to give us some free publicity, they can be our guest."