TONY’S WORLD

Importer-vintner Anthony Terlato brings some of the globe’s finest wines to America
Anthony “Tony” Terlato thinks the next fabulous
white-wine sensation is Moschofilero. It’s from
Greece.
    Yes, Greece.
    Terlato also predicts that U.S. wine drinkers will finally embrace shamefully underappreciated
dry rosés within the next 10 years, though to most people today, pink means plonk.
    He says Alderbrook Winery, which he took over in 2000, will produce great Zinfandel,
despite the Sonoma County producer’s history of underwhelming performance.
    And Terlato believes in California Merlot, even though there are a bunch of mediocre
ones out there and the varietal has been bashed by a certain Oscar–nominated film.
    Don’t bet against the man. In 50 years in the wine business, Terlato hasn’t been wrong about many things.
    In the late 1960s, he foresaw the popularity of Italian wines in America and became arguably the most important Italian wine importer in the States. In 1979, when Pinot Grigio wasn’t on anyone’s wine radar, Terlato imported an Italian one that became one
of the industry’s biggest success stories. In 2002, he realized wine distribution would be dominated by large, quantity-driven wholesalers rather than fine-wine experts and sold that part of his business to Southern Wine & Spirits.
    Today, his Terlato Wine Group (TWG) and its subsidiary, Paterno Wines International, imports, sells and/or owns wine brands and vineyards in California, Oregon, Canada, Italy, France, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Greece and Argentina. With 300 employees,
TWG grossed $200 million last year, up $15 million from 2003. It boasts an all-star cast of more than 40 wine, grappa and beer brands, all of them considered “luxury” products.
    In short, Tony Terlato is one of the most accomplished wine personalities on the planet.
    If you love Rochioli Vineyards Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, that’s a Terlato brand. Chimney Rock Winery Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon? Terlato purchased the
winery in 2004. Sanford Winery & Vineyards, a pioneering Santa Barbara County producer, has TWG as an investor. The strength of the lineup is Italian brands, including
Gaja, Barone Ricasoli, Cantine Lungarotti, Ca’ del Bosco and Pio Cesare.
    On Friday, PWI gains U.S. sales rights to Champagne Bollinger, “The exclusive purveyor of Champagne to the British Court since 1884.”
    Terlato’s company sells wines not often found in grocery stores – no $6.99 Little Dolphin or Barking Lizard or Rooster Tail labels for him.
    “After one generation,” Terlato says, “those price-sensitive wines are gone. We never lower the price; instead, we make the quality better and let the other brands chase us. You can’t be everything to everyone; that’s why we got out of the distribution business, which is driven by inexpensive wines. You can’t be the cheapest and
the best.”

Father knows best
    There is still a tiger in Tony’s tank, an enthusiasm and drive that belie his 71 years. While sons William, 46 (president and COO of Terlato Wine Group), and John, 45, (executive vice president) handle most of the details, Dad remains the visionary, the brand builder, the one who embraces family ownership of brands (Alderbrook, Chimney Rock, Rutherford Hill, Sanford and Terlato Vineyards) and treats clients just like family.

His mantra: “Quality is a way of life.”
    “Some might say that the 1947 Cheval Blanc (from St. Emilion in Bordeaux) is the best wine they’ve ever had,” Terlato says. “I aspire to that. Put our wine in a blind tasting and let me beat the others.”
    Terlato’s marketing wizardry, intuition on consumer desires and an ability to motivate others turned a rather unremarkable white wine from the Alto Adige region of Italy into a remarkable success story. Though well-made, the Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio ($25 retail, $40 or more in restaurants) isn’t any more flavorful or complex than most other Italian Pinot Grigios costing half as much, yet sellers can’t keep it in stock. It shouts “prestige, “ and folks want to swallow that.
    Thanks to Terlato’s prescient “name it and claim it” approach to the Pinot Grigio category, Santa Margherita is now one of the hottest imported wines in the world. According to a Wine & Spirits magazine survey, last year the wine was the sixth best-selling wine of any type in U.S. restaurants.
    Could Moschofilero – as obscure here as Santa Margherita was in the early 1980s – be on a similar path?
    At a lunch prepared by Terlato and his staff – he’s an accomplished chef and knows by smell alone that the garlic that’s about to be added to clams needs another minute of
cooking – at his second home atop a hill overlooking St. Helena, Terlato pours a mystery white wine and awaits the taster’s evaluation. The wine has a pretty scent of jasmine;
on the palate, it’s very fruity, but not sweet, with melon, grapefruit and white-peach flavors. It has amazing richness and mouthfeel for its low 11 percent alcohol content and is quite refreshing.
    The $16 wine is a mouthful to say as well – the 2003 Boutari Mantinia Moschofilero (moskoh- FEEL-ero) – made by Greece’s largest wine producer, Boutari, from the Moschofilero grape grown in the Mantinia region of southern Greece. So long, retsina, hello Moschofilero.
    “I’m very proud of this wine,” Terlato says. “We got the winemaker to change the way it was made, to use modern winemaking practices.”
    Terlato launched Moschofilero in the United States in 2002, with 2,000 cases; it sold 18,000 cases of the wine here in 2004. That’s a long way from the 445,000 cases of Santa Margherita sold in this country last year, but as Terlato says, quality takes time to be recognized.
    He is passionate about crisp, dry, mildly fruity rosés as well.
    “I’ve fallen in love with rosés, and I don’t understand why more people aren’t drinking them,” says Terlato while sipping the 2004 Chimney Rock Stags Leap District Rosé of
Cabernet Franc ($16). Stablemates Rutherford Hill Winery, Alderbrook and Sanford also make dry rosés.
    “White Zinfandel killed the rosé category,” Terlato says. “And there used to be the illusion that rosés were for women and red wine for men. I think it’s a matter of time
before more people drink rosé; the more good ones we make, the better it’s going to be. Give it 10 years.”

Quality counts
    “Tony is unbelievably passionate about quality,” Fletcher says. “He knows it starts in the vineyard, and he’s allowed (TWG chief viticulturalist) Rob Weinstock to fix the vineyards and, at great expense, get rid of growers who wouldn’t come around to growing quality fruit. We’re making better wines because we have more control over the grapes.”
    At Rutherford Hill in Napa Valley, Fletcher and Weinstock have also overseen a major overhaul in the vineyards and winery. The flagship varietal is Merlot, and while sales of this red wine continue to remain high, there has been some backlash against the generic, herbal and overoaked Merlots that clog the market.
    Fletcher recently decided to sell 60,000 gallons of Merlot meant for the Rutherford Hill program because it simply wasn’t good enough.
    “Never did I ask Doug, ‘How much will it cost?’ “ says Terlato, though when asked, he confesses that improvements have cost $5 million. “I only asked, ‘Will it make the wine better?’ It has. Success is happening with Rutherford Hill as more people taste the wines.
    “It takes five years for a wine to really take hold. Then it’s like a wave, a domino effect for a wine to become fashionable. Our 2001 Merlot is our best and the 2002 is
even better. We’re getting there.”
    In 2000, the Terlatos invested in Chimney Rock and took full ownership in 2004. The brand was in good shape, yet Fletcher says there was fine-tuning to be done, and an additional planting of 50 acres to bring the total to 137.
    This year, Fletcher helped Terlato launch the Terlato Family Vineyards brand with a 2004 Russian River Valley Pinot Grigio ($20).
    Angelo Gaja, who along with Piero Antinori is one of Italy’s most influential and accomplished vintners, hired Terlato to market his hard-to-get Piedmont Barolos and
Barbarescos in the United States in 2001.
    “Tony understands how to build a brand,” says Gaja, who sends 20 percent of his 25,000-case production to the States. It’s up to Terlato’s salespeople to decide which restaurants and fine-wine shops get the precious bottles.
    “He understands what makes you better than your competitors,” Gaja says. “He understands that to reach results, you must accept sacrifices. He’s a hard worker, as are his people. His enthusiasm and insistence on quality are contagious.”
    When Terlato isn’t in California, he’s at his Tangley Oaks property in Lake Bluff, outside of Chicago. The company’s 60-room, 26,000-square-foot Tudor mansion, filled with antiques and artwork, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
    Terlato, his wife, Jojo, and their sons entertain and do business at Tangley Oaks, with meals prepared by in-house chefs and paired to the wines by an in-house sommelier. It’s at such meals, and those he prepares in St. Helena, that Terlato might make another prediction.
    “Twenty-five years from now, the greatest wines in the world will come from the Stags Leap District,” he says of the Cabernet Sauvignon-based region north of the city of Napa – Chimney Rock’s appellation.
    Check back with Tony on his 96th birthday to see if he’s right.

©2005 by San Francisco Chronicle.