Blog

Peter and Margaret Lehmann, Vignerons (Peter Lehmann Wines)

Ladies and Gentlemen! Settle down at the back, we know you are excited about tonight's DJs, and why wouldn’t you be, and as a lot of you are Australian, it’s going to get noisy ... BUT we have, very unusually for the Dayglo, some cultured people playing their grooves live and ... yes, I said CULTURED ... (blimey, some of the sorts Security are letting through lately) ... so a bit of bloody HUSH would be in order. Yes, that means you too.

Kev ... thank you!

So, tonight, flown in by Two Paddocks Virtual Airways First Class (The kind of service you can only fantasize about when you are on B.A.) two people we love and admire here at TPHQ more than we can say ... yes the familiar avuncular presence on my right is of course the one and only Peter Lehmann, widely known as the Baron Of Barossa ... an awkward sobriquet we admit given Peter and Margaret’s firmly lefty inclinations, but one that indicates just a fraction of the mana and affection with which he is held in that beautiful corner of Australia, in the Australian wine world, and of course here at TPHQ, where he is held in awe and spoken about in hushed tones. We like to gather around the TP fire at night and tell stories of how Peter virtually singlehandedly and heroically risked all to save the wine growers of Barossa in the late 70s, early 80s, and at the same time chancing his arm, and leg too, in setting up the distinguished firm of Peter Lehmann, makers of some of the world’s greatest Shiraz, Riesling and Semillon. Respect!

And on my left, one of The Great Women, and unquestionably a Great Australian ... the irrepressible, the hilarious, the socially committed, the fascinating, the hospitable, the outrageous, the thrillingly subversive,  the other half of a great partnership ... the wonderful Margaret Lehmann.

Here they are, making their way up to the stage, about the best damn couple we know ... a big warm welcome for the amazing Peter and Margaret Lehmann!!>>>

Jason O'Mara, actor

Ladies and Gentlemen ... and Australians! Just kidding ... we love Australia here at the Dayglo! Here’s a SURPRISE tonight, someone we hardly know really, but we think is terrific, and we suspected would make a top DJ, and by gads we’ve seen his list, and we were right. Mind you, he comes highly recommended, by our pals Scott, Josh and Andre, the writers of Happy Town (that happiest of jobs) who had written Life on Mars, and loved him. And we really dug that show, and his work on it. A really good leading man – a harder job than it looks by the way. And now he is the solid beating heart of Terra Nova, and he is rightly garnering a huge following from that ... we watch it every week here at HQ. So here’s one or two things Jason and the Prop have in common – Ireland, time travel, and we both run from dinosaurs if needs be, with style and grace. But look, here he is, ready to play his stuff, we are delighted he’s here, flown straight from NYC on Two Paddocks Virtual Airways (First Class  - Close your eyes and you’re there in no time at all), a marvelous actor, and a famously good fellow ... Ladies and Gentlemen ... Jason O’Mara!>>>

The Grand Final

So, the results, of our November Moustache growing competition for charity ...

Jacqui judged the respectivemo-attempts with scientific scrupulousness. Points were awarded for length, breadth and  general mo-appeal. Mike Wing was assessed to be a clear winner. Objections were raised by some losers that Mike had a head start, having had a beard for a couple of years, off and on. These poor sports were summarily overruled, since all were free to start any time in the year.

The losers finally showed respect where respect was due.

Two Paddocks has donated $1000 to Prostate Cancer prevention in Mr. Wing’s name.

Congratulations Mike.

And remember chaps ... regular checks can save you a world of hurt!

Lillian Haynes, CEO Northeast Wines and Spirits Hong Kong

Ladies and Gentlemen!  Tonight, in the Dayglo, courtesy of Two Paddocks Virtual Air 1st Class (So convenient we just leave you at home.) arguably the world’s most glamorous, and nicest, wine distributor:  Lillian Haynes.

Lillian runs Northeast Wines and Spirits in fabulous Hong Kong, and they sell our wine in that most fantastic of cities. We love Hong Kong, and we know you do too, especially since Lillian ensures you are able to freely access Two Paddocks on both sides of the Fragrant Harbour.  Awesome, and reassuring at the same time. And we know none of you really  like to travel to foreign climes where the grizzly  possibility of a great dinner without a great TP Pinot is a genuine risk.

Lillian runs an extraordinarily successful business in the fiercely combative commercial milieu of Honkers (check out some of the other prestigious labels in their portfolio  - Geoff Merrill, Man O’ War, etc.) but she is also a wife and (rugby) mother, skier, golfer and above all DISCO Queen! Great company and good friend to Two Paddocks, she’s got it, and here she is, as always dressed in something super, swanning her elegant way across the Dayglo floor with her stack o’ wax, we have no idea what she wants to play, holding breath here, but here she is ... a big Dayglo welcome if you please, on your feet and hands in the air for  the remarkable and oh so beautiful ... Lillian Haynes!>>>

Club Med for Cows

This week our cow has gone down the road for a little R & R with a rather handsome Hereford bull at Earnscleugh Station. So far, so good...

Shakira, an obliging and friendly animal, is happy enough to be put on the halter, and lead away. Sweater looks on, as usual on the edge of sheep-hysteria. It’s about a mile down the road with Mike leading the way, but Shakira has a spring in her step. Perhaps she knows something’s up. And she quickly settles in for the honeymoon with her admirer . You’d swear they were deep in conversation.

Parminder Nagra, actor

Laaadies and Gentlemen! Tonight in the Two Paddocks Dayglo 24/7, shaking her stuff on our pulsing dance floor, exquisitely reflected a thousand times in the TP mirror ball, all the way from Alcatraz, First Class courtesy of Two Paddocks Virtual Airlines (the canapés are literally lighter than air), a surprise and a delight – the lovely and super talented Parminder Nagra. In January you will see her luminescent on Fox in Alcatraz. You know her best from Bend it Like Beckham and as the longest serving cast member in E.R. (seven years – heroic) with any luck you may have seen her in the heaps of other theatre and film she has made ... but we know her best from cocktails and vino after work. A great team member, a funny friend, a devoted mother,  a fabulous actor and dammit ...   a bona fide Star. Here she is, with a bunch of songs she promises will be a surprise ...  All the way from Leicester via Los Angeles directly here in living colour and surround sound ... the all singing, all dancing, all outrageous ... Parminder Nagra!>>>

All-star breakfast

Our fowl are not only decorative, they lay the most superb eggs.

Here’s a selection.

The green eggs are better than they look, but the Prop's favourites are the guinea-fowl eggs, second from the left.

Marianne Faithfull, Chanteuse Extraordinaire.

Ladies and Gentlemen! Tonight in the Dayglo Disco, courtesy of Two Paddocks Virtual Airways (First Class: Those Hostesses are just a Dream!), a treat of such rare privilege, one of the coolest people on the planet, so cool I think I may be hyperventilating ... yes ... I am, does anyone have a brown paper bag? Or a Ventolin puffer?  Oh thanks, much better. Yes here she is, one of the great beauties of our age, a completely remarkable artist, the most delightful company imaginable -- someone who has lived at least five lives in the most vivid ways imaginable, a great singer, writer and actor -- she knows everybody, and has done absolutely everything. Good Lord, it’s exhausting just thinking about it all, let alone living it. She’s sashaying her way across the floor, make room if you please!  … Oh stuff it, I’ll get out of her way and ask her to come up here to the stage with her Top 10, someone we feel privileged to know -- a big Dayglo welcome please for one of The Great Women, the always astonishing ... Marianne Faithfull!

Wait... she is saying something, she has the list in her hands, quiet please, she’s handing the list up to us here, what’s she saying?>>>

The Two Paddocks Xmas MAXiMOViE

Happy holidays and a great New Year from the team at Two Paddocks Wines!

A very tight race.

So, the moustache-growing competition has run its course, and at the end of last month, the boys manned up with whatever they could muster.

In all fairness, not spectacular results, but they did their best, given the good cause – prostate cancer.

A couple in the veterans section, unsurprisingly, grew completely white mos, which needed a little enhancement to be noticed at all ...

 

Bob gets some attention from Jacqui’s expert moustache eye. Keith gets assitance, too. The Longa-Lash mascara helped level the playing field somewhat. Then after the traditional mo haka, a lineup was finally achieved (like herding cats), it was all on, and the judge (Jacqui) took her time to decide.

Take a good look yourself , and  you decide who has the best moustache.

Result next time ...

Tim Evans, Negociants Australia

Ladies and Gentlemen! Attention please on the Dayglo floor. (Speaking of which, we know the flashing lights have been going a little strange this week, triggering migraines and one or two petits mals – apologies, but Boris the electrician has been on some kind of vodka all week sent from whatever Balkan country where we found him. Not pretty). No, say what you like about Australia (and many things have been said ... e.g. God’s own country, a fly cemetery, a den of cricket cheats, the greatest little country on Earth, you beauty and so on), we love it here at HQ, and we love Australians as well.

And part of our mission at TPHQ has always been to bring Two Paddocks to as much of The Lucky Country as we can. They love a top drop, even in Alice Springs – and believe me you need a top drop in Alice Springs!

And we realized very early we wanted to work with the best, to bring the best to The Best. We have been with Negociants Australia from the beginning; they, like us, are a family-owned company (their family has been at it slightly longer than us – the Smiths founded Yalumba, the parent company, 160 years ago, the Neill’s started purveying wine in Otago 150 years ago) and they are dedicated to premium wines, just as we are.

So Our Man at Negociants, Our Man in Australia, Imported Wines National Sales Manager, Tim Evans, a good friend of us here at Two Paddocks, has been crucial in this critical mission.

An Adeleide man through and through which means he has an accent so refined he could be mistaken for a Kiwi! Tim is a Crows fan (no we can’t explain that, some weird rugby deviate game they play there – AFL). Tim is about the most laid-back bloke we have ever met in a country where Laid-Back is an art form and a national pastime. He has been at Negociants 15 years, only slightly longer than us...he is married to the splendid Danni who also has a wine background, two kids, loves cars, fine barbequer – in short  top bloke at a top firm.

Here he is now, one of our favourite of all Australians, and a credit to the world of wine merchants ... the one and only, the entirely likeable, the urbane and charming , all-dancing, all-singing, all-imbibing ... Mr Sociable himself ... Mr Tim Evans!>>>