Winemaker aging well

Terlato might not be a household name, but chances are most wine connoisseurs have tasted the result of this Chicago family’s more than 50-year commitment to developing an American market for premium wines.
    Ranked as the 118th largest private company in Chicago by Crain’s Chicago Business, Lake Bluff-based Terlato Wine Group Ltd. has grown from a father-son operation into a wine powerhouse with 300 employees. The company grossed $200 million last year compared with $185 million in 2003 and $30 million in 1981.
    The company oversees interests and ownerships in wineries and vineyards as well as it’s flagship company, Paterno Wines International Ltd.
    Paterno is famous for making the astute decision 25 years ago to import Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, a brand that went on to become one of the most requested imported wines in restaurants.
    Today, Paterno hopes to see the same success in an unlikely candidate: A Greek white wine called Boutari Moschofilero.
    It won’t be easy. Paterno faces a much more competitive market in fine wines and Greece isn’t highly regarded as a premier wine producing region. However, the company’s resources and marketing clout ensure some success. Domestic sales for Moschofilero jumped to 18,000 cases last year from 2,000 cases in 2002.
    “If you’re going to buy a Greek white wine, then that’s the one you’ll buy,” said Todd Hess, wine director of Sam’s Wines and Spirits, the Lincoln Park liquor retailer. But it still has a long way to go before it claims the same success of Santa Margherita. Sam’s sells a couple cases of Boutari Moschofilero a month compared with 50 cases of Santa Margherita.
    Wine experts credit Chairman Anthony Terlato and Paterno for raising the bar for Italian wines.
    “He did more than anyone else to raise the quality of Italian wines in America,” said Fred Rosen, owner of Sam’s Wines and Spirits in Lincoln Park and Downers Grove. Santa Margherita is one of Sam’s 10 most popular brands. Sales of the wine continue to grow. Last year sales in supermarkets and drugstores alone increased 17.5 percent to $9.9 million, according to Information Resources Inc., the Chicago market research firm.
    Today, Paterno markets 49 domestic and international brands with its 130-person sales team who directly visit retailers and restaurants. With three sommeliers, Paterno also provides classes educating the staff of restaurants and buyers on its most prestigious labels.
    The company represents worldfamous European labels such as M. Chapoutier, a leading producer of wines from France’s Rhone Valley, and Gaja, a renowned Piedmontese producer that Italian wine experts Joseph Bastianich and David Lynch described in “Vino Italiano” as “the biggest name in Italian wine, period.”
    “We’ve visited thousands of wineries in dozens of countries, tasted all different products that come from a region and selected the best products,” said Chief Executive Officer Bill Terlato, Anthony’s oldest son. “We’ve done that work so the restaurateur and the fine wine retailer don’t have to. We’re providing a service to them as well as providing these products.”

By Kate Leahy
Medill News Service
©2005 by Daily Herald.