Coming as he does from the 166-year-old Hunter pioneer wine dynasty, Peter has made sure his eponymous venture recognises the region's traditional wine styles. But it also has a more offbeat side with such offerings as tyrian, vermentino, montepulciano and shiraz-touriga wines.

Tyrian, a name derived from its deep purple hues, is a crossbreed of cabernet sauvignon and the Spanish sumoll variety developed by the CSIRO for Australian conditions. It's a grape that intrigues Peter and he has used it to adopt the techniques that produce Italy's prized Amarone-style dried fruit wines, drying his late-picked grapes on racks and later crushing and fermenting them to produce rich, concentrated reds.

Vermentino is widely planted on the France's Mediterranean island of Corsica and Languedoc-Roussillon area and the Italian island of Sardinia. Montepulciano has its origins in Central Italy, in the regions of Abruzzo and Marche, with montepulciano d'Abruzzo being the most highly regarded wine of the variety. Touriga is a variety of Portuguese origin of which there are two versions, touriga francesa and the more-prized touriga nacional - now being increasingly used in Australia in blends with shiraz.

The youngest of Max and Caroline Drayton's four sons, Peter had the chance after leaving school in 1979 to join numerous other Draytons in the family wine business.

Instead he took on a Newcastle University civil engineering degree, then a business administration master's degree and from there he progressed into large-scale construction at his Thornton-based Drayton Constructions company.

He still heads that highly successful operation building Bunnings warehouses and other major projects all over the place. However, yielding to his wine bloodlines, he and his wife Leesa in 2001 bought the 40.5ha Hermitage Road, Pokolbin, Ironbark Hill property.

The land held a vineyard planted in the 1980s by previous owner Neil Flett and in the 2001 and 2002 vintages Peter sold most of the Ironbark Hill grapes to Tyrrell's.

The vineyard was upgraded to 18ha and in 2003 grapes went into Peter's own wine portfolio, today including shiraz, semillon, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, verdelho, pinot grigio, pinot noir, tempranillo, vermentino, barbera, cabernet franc, touriga, montepulciano and tyrian.

And, ever the activist, Peter has added an attractive cellar door, craft beer brewhouse, function centre and chapel and tourist accommodation to the Hermitage Road site.

THIS zingy Peter Drayton 2018 Wildstreak Tyrian registers 13.5% alcohol, glows deep garnet in the glass and has gamey aromas. Vibrant blackberry flavour comes through on the front palate, dried cranberry, licorice, spearmint and vanillin oak integrate on the middle palate and savoury tannins play at the finish.

PRICE: $40.

DRINK WITH: roast pork loin with prune stuffing.

AGEING: nine years.

RATING: 4.5 stars

FRESH and fruity, the Peter Drayton 2019 Anomaly Vermentino has green-tinted straw hues and gooseberry scents. Ripe white peach flavour zips onto the front palate, the middle palate shows nashi pear, passionfruit and cumquat characters and the finish slatey acid. Peter Drayton wines are at the 694 Hermitage Rd cellar door and pdwines.com.au.

PRICE: $30.

DRINK WITH: pizza.

AGEING: drink now.

RATING: 4 stars

SHINING with bright garnet hues, the Peter Drayton 2018 Anomaly Montepulciano has 14.5% alcohol and potpourri aromas. It brings lifted, spicy cherry flavour to the front palate and introduces bramble jelly, plum, herb and savoury oak elements to the middle palate. The finish shows berry fruit and spearminty tannins.

PRICE: $36.

DRINK WITH: doner kebabs and tabouli salad.

AGEING: nine years.

RATING: 4.5 stars