Peter Leon Lehmann AM, (18 August 1930 – 28 June 2013) was an Australian

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are ...

producer based in the

Barossa Valley The Barossa Valley (Barossa German: ''Barossa Tal'') is a valley in South Australia located northeast of Adelaide city centre. The valley is formed by the North Para River. It is notable as a major wine-producing region and tourist destinat ...

Biography

Lehmann was born in

Angaston, South Australia Angaston is a town on the eastern side of the Barossa Valley in South Australia, 77 km northeast of Adelaide. Its elevation is 347 m, one of the highest points in the valley, and has an average rainfall of 561 mm. Angaston was orig ...

on 18 August 1930. His father was

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

Pastor Franz Julius Lehmann, and son may have joined father in the ministry but for Franz' sudden death in 1945, aged 55. Peter soon dropped out of school "ostensibly to be some support to my recently widowed mother," he says. In 1947, he started work at the

Yalumba Yalumba is an Australian winery located near the town of Angaston, South Australia in the Barossa Valley wine region. It was founded by a British brewer, Samuel Smith, who emigrated to Australia with his family from Wareham, Dorset in August 18 ...

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...

under Rudi Kronberger.Peter Lehmann, founder of ''Peter Lehmann Wines''
Accessed 5 June 2014. From 1960 to 1980 he was Winemaker/Manager at Saltram Wines. He parted company with Saltram to become the Chairman of Peter Lehmann Wines, a role later filled by his son Doug.Passion aplenty in wine stoush, Alan Kohler, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 September 2003 Peter Lehmann has been described as one of Australia's most respected and innovative wine makers. His success in winning international trophies has been noted by the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation.

Family

Lehmann's eldest son Doug Lehmann was also a noted winemaker who worked for the family company. He died in June 2014.

Peter Lehmann Wines

Founded in 1979, Peter Lehmann Wines produces around 600,000 cases annually, with distribution to Australia, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and many other countries. It is located in the

, approximately 70 kilometres north of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

in South Australia. In 1977, Saltram instructed then winemaker/manager Peter Lehmann to buy less

grapes A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

from their Barossa growers. Since Peter had given the growers his word to buy the grapes, he refused. After months of negotiations with Dalgety plc, which owned Saltram, he was allowed to start an outside company called Masterson Barossa Vineyards in order to buy and process the grapes. Tyre retailer MS Mcleod gave financial backing to the venture. The inspiration of the name came from the legendary gambler Sky Masterson (see

Guys and Dolls ''Guys and Dolls'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on " The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and als ...

), because starting the company was such a gamble, and in keeping with the theme the

queen of clubs The queen is a playing card with a picture of a queen on it. In many European languages, the king and queen begin with the same letter so the latter is often called ''dame'' (lady) or variations thereof. In French playing cards, the usual ran ...

was chosen as the logo for the company. In 1979 Saltram was sold to Canadian multinational spirit producer

Seagram The Seagram Company Ltd. (which traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Originally a distiller of Canadian whisky based in Waterloo, Ontario, it was once (in the 1990s) the l ...

which informed Peter that he could no longer make wine on the side, so he quit his job at Saltram and worked fully for Masterson. In 1982 the company was renamed Peter Lehmann Wines. In 1992 MS Mcleod decided to divest themselves of their investment in the company, and with no local buyer in the offing and the company again facing closure or a fire sale to a multinational, a public float was devised. While the core shareholding was intended to be taken up by the growers themselves and by staff, it was feared that the capital raised would be insufficient and so a share and option package was offered publicly. In the end the float was oversubscribed and the new company performed strongly. In late 2003 'PLW' became the subject of a heated bidding war between UK-based

Allied Domecq Allied Domecq PLC was an international company, headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom, that operated spirits, wine, and quick service restaurant businesses. It was once a FTSE 100 Index constituent but has been acquired by Pernod Ricard. Th ...

and Swiss based

Hess Group Hess or Heß may refer to: * Hess (surname), also ''Heß'' in German, people with the surname Hess * Hess, Oklahoma, a community in the United States * Hess Educational Organization, the largest private provider of English instruction in the Re ...

. Allied Domecq had acquired 14.5% of Peter Lehmann Wines when it first submitted a takeover bid on 22 September. Peter Lehmann and the board of directors countered by recommending sale to the Hess Group instead. Hess matched the Allied Domecq offer, adding a special dividend to the deal, and purchased the company for a market valuation of $103 million

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

. By 2016, Peter Lehmann Wines was owned by

Casella Family Brands Casella Family Brands is a family-owned wine company based in Australia. Its most well-known brandname is ellow tail History Filippo and Maria Casella immigrated to Australia in 1957. They bought land and established a vineyard at Yenda in ...

Biography

Family

Peter Lehmann Wines

See also

References

Further reading