Their philosophy paid off admirably on Sunday when one of their former hotel customers, South Australian Premier Mike Rann, agreed to officially open their cellar door for Eyre Creek.

Mr Rann had given the Adelaide media pack the slip (presumedly somewhere around Gepps Cross) to enjoy a weekend of relaxation in the Clare Valley with his wife Sasha Carruozzo and a friend from the United States.

Fortunately the Northern Argus was there to record the occasion as Mr Rann reminisced about family holidays in Burra and the Clare Valley and, until they sold the pub two years ago, the hospitality of the Osbornes at the Rising Sun.

“Their personalities and their charm enthused everything they did,” Mr Rann said of their last minute weekend escapes to the Rising Sun when an official engagement had been cancelled. “It was an experience quite different to so many other places.”

Mr Rann and his party stayed at the Rising Sun on Saturday night and enjoyed a trip to Burra (“great coffee in Burra”) on Sunday morning before he returned to unveil the plaque in the renovated dairy on the Osbornes’ property north of Auburn.

Mr Rann said a visit to London for a wine fair a couple of years ago had revealed the role of the wine exports in promoting South Australia.

“Increasingly people want to know more about the character of the area where the wine is made, the history of the area and the character of the winemaker,” he said.

“The wine industry helps define South Australia as a state and as a people.”

Mr Rann said South Australia produced 15 bottles of wine per second and needed to brand its clean, green image to meet the climate change demands of the UK and European markets.

Mr Osborne said he and Glenise had commenced as publicans at the Rising Sun Hotel on May 1, 1989, with a plan in mind.

“We were going to make a big quid in five years and head to Queensland,” he said. “Nineteen years later, we don’t want to live anywhere else but the Clare Valley.”

Mr Osborne said he had pre-warned Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council Mayor Allan Aughey about the sting in his speech regarding the council’s development approval process, which he likened to an elephant’s gestation period.

He said it had taken 12 months for the council to grant development approval for a 6.5 metre by 6.5 metre building.

“It really is imcumbent upon you to do something about the mess called the planning approval process,” Mr Osborne said, while adding that other councils had similar problems.

He said in contrast, dealing with the Liquor Licensing Commission and the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure in establishing the cellar door “really was deadset easy”.

The meticulous transformation of the former dairy into a cellar door was carried by Saddleworth builder Simon Pilkinton who re-used the roofing timber to make Baltic pine doorframes and sourced most of the stone from the Osborne property.

Like the Osbornes, Mr Pilkinton also turned out to have friends in high places when the Premier singled him out for praise.

“You can quote me as saying ‘a brilliant Saddleworth builder in Simon Pilkinton’,” Mr Rann told the Northern Argus.