ANTHONY TERLATO MEMOIR
NOW AVAILABLE
“Taste: A Life in Wine” arrived in bookstores December 2008

Terlato Wines Chairman Anthony Terlato has accomplished much in his more than half-a-century in the wine business. And now, you can add ‘published author’ to his long list of credentials. Terlato’s personal memoir entitled “Taste: A Life in Wine,” published by Surrey, hit bookstores nationwide in December 2008. It is being sold at various retailers across the country and on Amazon.com.

In his personable and engaging style, Terlato tells the story of how his career in wine began with stacking boxes in his father’s liquor store on the north side of Chicago, before he joined his father-in-law’s wine bottling company. At a time when most wine was still shopped coast-to-coast in containers marked simply “red” and white,” Terlato saw a different future for wine – one he ultimately expressed in his company’s motto, “Quality Endures.” As Terlato helped grow the company into a national force, he focused on exposing American diners and wine drinkers to the world’s finest wines.

The book has already been reviewed by a number of writers:

By Bill Daley

December 10, 2008

Shaping the wine world
You may not know who Anthony Terlato is but chances are you've drunk his wines, either wines he has imported from around the world or made under a legion of labels owned by his Lake Bluff-based company, Terlato Wines International. All autobiographies are intrinsically personal. Yet, this is also the story of how Americans over the last 50 years have come to know wine and how some of Terlato's business decisions have changed forever what we drink and why. He is known as the father of pinot grigio in the U.S. for a reason: he was the importer of Santa Margherita. This is no tell-all book, but Terlato often reveals much by what he doesn't write. You sense the inner steel and discipline that made him a success in a competitive business. The book also contains a number of recipes for some of Terlato's favorite dishes: he also is a hard-core foodie who has long championed wine with food.


By Sandra Silfven

December 11, 2008

For the connoisseur,
"Taste: A Life in Wine" by Anthony Terlato
Tony Terlato is America's modern-day wine baron, who tells how he rose from a boy from Brooklyn, working in the family liquor store, to a position of global leadership in the wine trade. Today, Terlato imports, exports and markets wine, and he produces wine at Rutherford Hill, Chimney Rock, Sanford, Terlato Family Vineyards, Domaine Terlato & Chapoutier and Alderbrook. He is chairman of Terlato Wines International and Terlato Wine Group, based in Chicago. Terlato has many feathers in his cap, but one of the biggest is discovering Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio and igniting interest in this grape variety in the U.S. This autobiography is a personable read in which Terlato talks about his close relationships with legends such as Alexis Lichine, Frank Schoonmaker, Robert Mondavi, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, Michel Chapoutier and Angelo Gaja."

By William Rice

December 2008

As a major player in bringing prestige wines here from the Old World and the New, Anthony "Tony" Terlato has cast a large shadow across Chicago's wine community for the better part of half a century. Now a senior statesman at 74, and with his two sons directing day-to-day operations of Terlato Wines International and the Terlato Wine Group, he has found time for recollection and reminiscence.

Against the backdrop of a nation slowly coming to recognize wine ("quality wine," he interjects time and again), Terlato recounts assorted deals he made over the years to represent great wineries as importer, distributor, and — since the mid nineties — owner. One of the most revealing vignettes has him dining alone and ordering a bottle of each of an Italian restaurant's pinot grigios. There were 16. "Are you sure want to drink all of these tonight?" the owner asks. "I'm not going to drink them," replies Terlato, who was on the search for wines to import. "I just want to taste them." (As an occasional guest in the Terlato kitchens, I've seen this same dedication applied to canned tomatoes and dried pasta. No wonder he titled his book Taste.)

By David Tamarkin 

October 10, 2008  

Terlato is often referred to as the man responsible for pinot grigio – not making it, but making it so popular in the United States. His 50 years in the wine business have culminated in Terlato Wines International, one of the biggest wine companies in the country. This story is just as much about Terlato's personal history as it is the company's, and both stories correspond with the story of wine culture in America.

Terlato and his book have also received praise from notables in the wine industry:

“Through his entire career, Anthony Terlato has gone against the current, following a
path that was much more difficult than other winemakers, in the effort to turn his dreams into realities that millions of wine drinkers now enjoy.”
Michel Chapoutier, Winemaker

“It’s almost impossible to overestimate Anthony Terlato’s importance to the American
wine scene. While most Americans don’t know his name, they are opening millions of his bottles.”
Marvin Shanken, Publisher, Wine Spectator

“A true wine and business visionary, Anthony Terlato has played a key role in bringing great wines of the world to the American market. He is one of the most important figures in the world of wine.”
Angelo Gaja, Winemaker