Anthony J. Terlato*

Anthony "Tony" Terlato was born in 1934 in Brooklyn, New York. His father, an Italian immigrant, had to leave St. John's University during the Great Depression. When his father became an insurance salesman, it was difficult to convince potential customers to buy insurance when they could barely afford to put food on the table.

Terlato remembers his childhood as warm and loving. His father taught him the importance of honesty in business dealings and of always maintaining a good reputation. He delivered newspapers as a boy; then in his teen years, he delivered groceries, earning enough money to purchase a 1939 Chevrolet when he was 16.

After graduating from Brooklyn Prep Jesuit High School, Terlato went to St. Francis College, also in Brooklyn. He majored in business but left school during his sophomore year to take a position with a local bank. Promotions came slowly, so he left and found a job in Miami as a hotel bellboy. He put in 16-hour days and then became a swimming and diving instructor at a resort.

At that point his parents moved to Chicago, and his father opened one of the first self-service supermarket liquor stores. Asked to help his father run the business, Terlato did so and soon married Josephine Paterno, whose father owned a wine bottling company. At the age of 23, he went to work for his father-in-law, gradually changing the business from bottling to wine distribution. By the mid-1980s, Pacific Wine was the leading premium wine distributor in Illinois.

Terlato was one of the first importers to bring the Pinot Grigio varietal to U.S. consumers. For his role in introducing Italian wines to America, the Italian government decorated Terlato with its Cavaliere Ufficiale in 1984, thereby becoming the first American in the wine industry to receive this award.

In 1980, Terlato received the Spirit of Life Award from City of Hope. In 2002, he joined the board of trustees of COPIA: The American Center for Food, Wine, and the Arts. In 2002, he was named Wine Enthusiast magazine's Man of the Year. In 2004, he received Wine Spectator magazine's Distinguished Service Award.

In 2008, Terlato published his autobiography, Taste: A Life in Wine. In 2009, the Italian Trade Commission inducted him into the Wines of Italy Hall of Fame. In 2014, Wine Enthusiast conferred its Lifetime Achievement Wine Star award on Terlato for his "vision and energy, which have helped to make wine into the global industry it has become today."

The Terlato Wine Group became involved in every aspect of the luxury wine industry including vineyard and ownership of the Chimney Rock, Rutherford Hill, Sanford Winery, Terlato Family Vineyards, Mazzoni, and Terlato & Chapoutier labels.

When addressing young people, Terlato's advice was to "stay focused, be passionate, be honest, and dedicate yourself to your work. Fall in love with your work and be enthusiastic about it. Remember that the impossible is what can't be done, until someone does it."