ML - Michigan Avenue

2014 - Issue 4 - Summer

Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!

Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/335804

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 57 of 163

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANJALI PINTO (TERLATO) RIGHT: After nearly 60 years in the business, Terlato has amassed a wine portfolio that's been called the world's greatest. BELOW: He got his start in the industry working at his father's store, Leading Liquor Mart, on Chicago's North Side. *the sporting life "Golf is the only sport that is never the same. I'm hooked because you never beat it. With golf, you could shoot 66 today, 84 tomorrow." *chicago favorites "Ravinia is special since we took our boys and now our grandchildren for picnics on the lawn and to hear classical music. Wrigley Field means a lot to me since Ron Santo was Billy's godfather, so I took both boys to many Cub games." *like a fine wine "My wife, JoJo, is fantastic. We've been married 58 years and she just gets better with age. Now, occasionally, she even listens to me!" *would love to share a bottle with "Jesus Christ. I don't know what he drank at the Last Supper, but I'd love to serve him my wine." *the best revenge "Someone whom I will leave nameless once said, 'We all know that Tony can sell wine; now let's see if he can make it.' And then, in 2007, [our Bordeaux blend] Episode got a 95 rating. I sent that man a note: 'So what do you think now?'" VINO, VIDI, VICI Tony Terlato shares some of his personal passions. continued from page 55 "My only demand is that quality always comes fi rst." TONY TERLATO Terlato isn't one to dwell on past successes, though. He grows animated when discussing the recent ini- tiatives taken by his sons—Bill, TWG's president and CEO, and John, its vice president—to expand the compa ny's por t folio w it h t he new spir it s div ision Artisan, featuring brands like the super-premium Swiss vodka Xellent. "No matter what we do, my only demand is that if we make changes, quality always comes first," says the senior Terlato. "We want to maintain this standing with this new line of spirits." Known as the "Father of Pinot Grigio" for discov- ering and bringing Santa Margherita to the US 30 years ago, Terlato has worked in every tier of the wine industry since 1955, as retailer, importer, mar- keter, dist ributor, winer y owner, vineyard owner, and wine producer. His vast portfolio of wines—which also includes K racher, Il Poggione, and Lapostolle—has been called the world's greatest wine list. No shabby feat for someone who began his career in the modest surroundings of his father's liquor store, Leading Liquor Mart, on the city's North Side, before joining his father-in-law's wine-bottling firm, Pacific Wine Company. Terlato points to an old sepia-tinted photog raph taken of him at the liquor store. "Look, I remember when wine was 49 cents a bottle, and a top-of-the-line Lafite could be had for under $3.98 —now worth upwards of $1,000 a bottle. Wine back then was not at all part of the dining culture. My good friend Robert Mondavi said years ago, 'One day, there will be a wine bottle on every restaurant table—you'll see.' Of course, it turned out to be true." Terlato's vision early on was to expand and diversify. W hat began as a company focused on marketing and distribution evolved into one with investments in vineyards and joint ven- tures in wine production. In addition to purchasing Rutherford Hill (located in Napa Valley) in 1996, t he compa ny ow ns Chimney Rock (St ags Leap, Napa Va lley), is a major it y ow ner of Sanford Winery (Santa Barbara), and has a joint venture with M. Chapoutier in Australia. Once Terlato began to make his own wines, he felt intense pressure to produce wines as good as those he'd been marketing. He recalls a dinner several years ago with renowned Italian wine- maker Angelo Gaja. "After we drank a bottle of his wine, he asked to try a bottle of my wine. This particular varietal was only a few years old, and I said, 'No, not yet.' But we did anyway, and Gaja said, 'Tony, you learned fast!' That was my greatest compliment." In his long career, Terlato has received accolades aplenty. Wine Enthusiast Magazine named him its 2002 Man of the Year, crediting him with "changing the way Americans drink" by bringing quality Italian wines to the US; in April 2006 he received the Horatio Alger Award, which honors the achievements of outstanding Americans and whose past recipients have included Maya Angelou, Bob Hope, and Leonardo DiCaprio; and last year came the award of which he may be proudest: In the San Francisco Chronicle's annual Wine Competition (the world's largest contest among American wines, with a field of 5,500 from all over the US), the 2010 Terlato Family Vineyards Pinot Noir won the title "Best of the Show." For Terlato, the drive to succeed is simple. "All of this is for my family," he says. "I want them to possess the same love and passion that I do—that's the heritage I give to my children." MA 56 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM VIEW FROM THE TOP

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of ML - Michigan Avenue - 2014 - Issue 4 - Summer