Taste

Anthony Terlato's autobiography is the story of how post-Prohibition America grew to appreciate good wine. It begins with stacking boxes in his father's liquor store on the north side of Chicago, to joining his father-in-law's distribution company and growing it into a national force, to developing relationships with major wine luminaries like Alexis Lichine, Frank Schoonmaker, Angelo Gaja, Robert Mondavi, Baroness de Rothschild, and Michel Chapoutier, to ultimately acquiring and partnering in noted wineries on three continents. Terlato realized that helping people understand the link between fine dining and fine wine was the key to increasing their appreciation. His story is not the usual CEO narrative of climbing the corporate ladder, nor the usual winemaker's tale of pursuing perfection in a glass — it paints in broad strokes the image of one individual having an enormous impact on American's wine-drinking habits.