Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/91577
TERLATO WINES PRESENTS … A New Classroom For Wine W story and photos by Fred Minnick ine presentations go something like this: Here's the soil, here's the climate, here's the oak and finally, after the presenter whets your palate for about six minutes too long, here's the wine. Yeah, that's not Tony Terlato's style. Wearing a fine light blue silk shirt and tie in a splendid suit, a special pen from the Pope inside his jacket and a lapel pin symbolizing his Italian knighthood, the humble, gentlemanly Terlato avoids these lectures. "You know how many speeches I've had to hear over the years where people pontificated about the grapes and clones?" asked the famous wine importer. "Anybody can do that." Rachel Williams is a renowned wine list consultant. Restaurants from Mississippi to New York contract her to create new wine lists. Wines Tasted Sohm & Kracher Grüner Veltliner Vineyards of Lower Austria, Weinvertal 2011 Pavillon Blanc du Château Margaux 2008 Chimney Rock Elevage Blanc Napa Valley, 2008 Chanson Clos des Mouches 1er Cru 2009 Chapoutier Chante Alouette, Hermitage 2010 Chanson Clos des Fèves 1er Cru 2009 GAJA "Sori San Lorenzo" 2006 Rutherford Hill "Reserve" Merlot, Napa Valey 2007 Terlato Family Vineyards "Block 9" Syrah, Dry Creek 2007 Chapoutier "Le Pavillon" Ermitage 2007 GALAXY 2008 64 / the tasting panel / november 2012 Instead of doing what everybody else does, the charming Terlato plays a game. In New York, at Eleven Madison Park, more than 20 sommeliers and high-end wine retailers divided up into four tables and blind tasted five whites and six reds, followed by a double-blind tasting where they ranked the wines. For the first two flights, the contestants were given three series of multiple choice questions. At table two, New York's top retailers, including Sherry-Lehmann's Chris Adams, pondered every wine together. When a red comes across our noses, Zachys' Jeremy W. Noye and Acker Merrall & Condit's David Hamburger debated whether a thought-to-be Italian wine was either a Sangiovese or Nebbiolo. "Sangiovese would have more tobacco in the nose," said Hamburger, whose Acker Merrall is among the world's leading wine auctioneers. To that point, Noye said: "But, it doesn't have to have those initial floral aromatics—it's been open awhile." They ruled out Sangiovese and picked Nebbiolo in agree- ment with their fellow table members: this writer, The Wine Cellarage's Alan Marschok, Rye Brook's Wine & Spirit Shop's Matthew Bernstein and Rachel Williams, a wine list consultant. Other tables were having the same debates and were filled with New York's top sommeliers, including Crystal Friedman, Sommelier at Del Frisco's; Gary Schenik, Beverage Manager at Brasserie Pushkin; Aaron Von Rock, Wine Director for Lincoln Ristorante; and Manny Paredes, Sommelier at David Burke Kitchen as well as many others. In the tight competition, the winner came down to the Sangiovese or Nebbiolo debate. Tables one and two were the only two to select Nebbiolo, and they were right. They tied, and the wine was revealed as the GAJA "Sori San Lorenzo" 2006, a beautiful Terlato import that retails in the $380 to $400 range. The Nebbiolo was an example of the quality in this tasting. In fact, Terlato tastings usually showcase nothing but the best. According to the company, Terlato markets one of every 10 bottles of wine sold for more than $14 a bottle. It also has more than 1,400 wines scored above 90 since 2007. With so many importers giving the same spiel over and over, the sommeliers and retailers appreciated this quiz-style blind tasting. "It's a good way to chal- lenge our perceptions of wine," Noye says. The industry has come to expect such from Terlato, "a mentor," says Fedele M. Miranda, Executive General Manager for Empire Merchants. "He is responsible for much change in the wine industry." Will others follow his tasting style? The wine world can only hope.