TERRY Peabody's daughter Mary-Jeanne liked working with her father, but she didn't like his industries.
With mother Mary, the then 22-year-old did something about it.
"We sat him down and wined and dined him. We told him we don't like his stinky businesses - we wanted something that we could be involved in. We all enjoy wine and we would like to go into the wine business."
The result is Craggy Range, founded in 2003.
Mr Peabody said the wine industry was very, very serious.
"It is the most expensive thing you could do - it is a business that needs a great deal of capital and a lot of patience," he said.
"You don't produce any wine for four years after you have spent all your money planting vines, and then an awful lot sits in barrels for two years, so you are heading towards six years without any income.
"At any given time we have about $30 million worth of wine sitting in the warehouse, so it is not a business for the fainthearted and it is not a business that lends itself to being a hobby-type enterprise."
His wine enterprise has been meticulously planned, with the impressive style of Giants Winery and the Craggy Range cellar door matching technological function.
The Australian businessman was born in Guam to American parents. He was a baby when his parents took the last boat from Guam, before the Japanese took over in WWII.
Some of his father's friends were interned by the Japanese and treated "very, very terribly".
They moved to Virginia and when he was aged 4 to the state of Washington.
At age 9 they moved to Japan where his father built American Air Force bases.
A part-time job saw his parents return him to the US.
"At age 15, they caught me singing in a nightclub and I got sent to military school."
He graduated and joined his parents when they moved to Australia.
In his early 20s he was working on one of the world's largest engineering projects, the Snowy Mountains scheme, grouting dam walls.
His entrepreneurial eye led to his first business "with very little money and a lot of ambition". in 1965. He was adding imported pozzolan to cement mix, made from fly ash, and realised Australia had abundant sources of fly ash from coal burning power stations.
The power stations had been paying to have the fly ash removed.
"We started testing that in ready-mix concrete and bitumen products and we found it very beneficial. So we pioneered the use of the material in Australia and then we took it international."
The company expanded to Hong Kong, the US and almost New Zealand.
"We got a contract here on the Huntly power station, but as we were building our plant it converted to gas, which didn't tickle me."
He took the company public and it was bought by industry giant Holderbank, now called Holcim.
He still holds a Philippines operation, operating from four large coal-burning power stations and exporting to Asia.
He started another company making money from waste products - Trans-Pacific.
"For a period of time that became the largest waste management company in Australia and New Zealand, because we bought out Waste Management here."
Between his companies he operated a fleet of 2500 trucks, which instigated the purchase of US truck manufacturer Western Star Trucks in 1990.
"That became a huge company. We manufactured heavy-duty trucks in Canada and the United States and were the largest city-bus manufacturer in North America."
In 1996, he also bought British truck manufacturer ERF and utilised synergies. He had plants in Australia, the US, England and South Africa.
Trans-Pacific was taken public as was his truck manufacturers, ultimately sold to DaimlerChrysler.
The owner of his trucking firm's distributor in New Zealand also owned Montana Wines, which was his introduction to the local wine industry.
He said he saw a new opportunity for the wine industry as well as his family.
Craggy Range has vineyards in Marlborough, Martinborough and two in Hawke's Bay.
A 1000-year trust ensures Craggy Range stays in the family, but setting it up was difficult. Most jurisdictions don't allow long-term trusts and those that do tend to be in third-world countries. After a worldwide search, "ironically we found one state you can do that - South Australia."
Today Mary-Jeanne is in charge of Australian PR and sales and marketing. Her brother David is a Craggy Range director and brother Terry Junior was initially involved in Craggy Range, based in Hawke's Bay, and is now in the Australian hospitality industry.
Terry Junior's son, David Junior, says he was met with reluctance when he asked to join Craggy Range.
"I had to force my way in," the 25-year-old marketing graduate said.
"When I was pretty young I saw what was going on and I fell in love with everything they were doing. I said I'd like to be involved and they said no. I had to prove that I really wanted to be in the wine business - that was probably just to make sure I wasn't just going in willy-nilly."
He worked in Brisbane retail outlets "where I got a lot of my initial wine education from" and worked two years at Craggy Range.
He runs corporate sales in Australia but is moving to Singapore for Asian interests.
Terry Peabody said the Chinese market had matured from its interest in wine purely for the gift-giving season. The government had cracked down on officials purchasing prestige-label wines "that they gave to each other" and now quality was driving sales.
David Junior said Singapore had "a pretty amazing food culture" and marketing Craggy Range in a crowded market would not be a problem, once people had a taste.
"Wine is like music - you listen to more than one band. With wine you drink more than one label."
His grandfather said he spent about 20 per cent of his time on the business. Mary-Jeanne said her parents "are selling Craggy wherever they go".
"I still call Australia home," Terry Peabody said.
"At least two months a year are spent in New Zealand. We always come for harvest, we always come for blending in September/October and there is always the odd trip."
In 2012, he entered into a partnership with Benjamin de Rothschild and his family to produce Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and pinot noir from a 26ha vineyard. The Rothschild's wine is called Rimapere.
Mr Peabody said he enjoyed the camaraderie of the wine industry. "In all my other businesses you really don't like your competitors. Craggy Range is a member of the Family of Twelve - 12 privately-owned New Zealand winery families.
"We work wonderfully around the world and support each other."
His daughter said it would be impossible for him to retire.
"It's not work if you enjoy it, and Craggy Range certainly doesn't feel like work."
An empire built to last
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