Observers of 22-year-old Bruce Tyrrell at UNE 50 years ago would have recognised something of the successful winemaker and promoter he was to become.
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There was the seemingly endless supply of top-notch family plonk he subtly marketed at Earle Page College formal dinners each week, initiating many to wine drinking.
"They still blame me for that today," Mr Tyrrell said.
But it was in the beer department that his head for figures and business acumen really came to the fore, as college treasurer.
"I paid for my third-year fees sly-grogging beer to about 500 thirsty blokes in college,"
"I got hold of the bloke who ran the Citizen Military Forces (CMF) mess and the army, in those days, bought all its beer tax-free, so it was about 30-40% off retail. So we did a deal and he made some money, the college made some money and I made a reasonable profit. You should never miss an opportunity."
With one of former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser's chief advisors - the late Professor Geoff Meredith - as his main business management lecturer, Mr Tyrrell was schooled in more than creative accounting.
"He taught us how to run a business, not to be a bean counter, and there are things that I learnt about stock valuation and how to think that I still apply in business today.
Returning to the family's Hunter Valley operation with a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics, the first in his family to attend university, Mr Tyrrell hit the ground running under the watchful eye of his father Murray.
"Our industry was growing rapidly, the business advice I was given was simply to go out and sell, and that's what I did.
"I remember being thrown out of Sherry-Lehmann (the top wine and liquor store) in New York in the early 1980s, and the second time I visited the owner pulled a 45 revolver on me. It was a pretty tough market. Australia's biggest-selling product at the time was Blackberry Nip. That's what we drank. We were just trying to get people to drink wine."
It's a different story today. The family business English settler Edward Tyrrell established in the Hunter Valley in 1858 - which boasts the oldest producing vineyard in NSW - is the world's foremost semillon producer.
Mr Tyrrell has only recently handed over the reins to his son Chris, making him just the fifth leader in the family's history.
The Tyrrell's Semillon Vat 1 that Mr Tyrrell developed and nurtured is considered one of the world's finest wines and is certainly Australia's most awarded white wine, having been awarded almost 5,500 medals and more than 330 trophies.
The Tyrrell's Sacred Sites range - wines made only with grapes from Hunter Valley vines more than 100 years old and still growing on their own roots - bottles Mr Tyrrell's passion for provenance.
"I still see myself as a farmer; nature determines what's going to happen, we don't decide.
"However, ours is one of the few industries where we are totally integrated; we grow our own grapes and go right through to wholesale and retail," he said.
"Each stage has its challenges, particularly selling wine at the moment. No one knows what the market's doing."
"We are already adapting to climatic change, pruning differently and spraying sunscreen on the vines; we've changed our machinery, and we formed an environmental management committee back in 2009 to reduce our power and fuel usage. It's getting harder, but we continue to look at how we can grow better grapes and save money."
And it's time, Mr Tyrrell said, for him to "step back and shut up".
"I have two grandsons and want to help bring them up and teach them the values of the family. To be fair dinkum; to deal with people fairly and reasonably and consider your impact on their lives.
"We want to make great wine, make no mistake. But we want to be for real, in everything we do."
