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!!