Category Archives: Personalities

By Don Holton
Contributing Writer

Wines produced by pro golfers Ernie Els and Luke Donald were the stars of our recent tasting at Terlato Wine Group’s corporate headquarters in Lake Bluff, the restored Armour mansion built in the 1930s.

Luke Donald - photo courtesy of Don Holton

After tasting the Ernie Els wines (see Friday’s post), we moved to another room and the wines of Luke Donald. As a professional athlete, Donald might not be expected to fancy fine wines, but he has a range of talents – as a golfer, winemaker, and artist. He also completed an undergraduate degree at Northwestern University, at a time when many top young golfers skip college and head for the pro tours.

The Luke Donald Chardonnay 2007 consists of 100% Carneros Chardonnay grapes. This is a wonderful wine, exemplary of the movement away from heavy oak, and it succeeds in deftly balancing citrus and a mild oaky sweetness. It retails for about $30.

Luke Donald Chardonnay - photo courtesy of Terlato Wine Group

The Luke Donald Claret 2006 is 100% Napa Valley fruit, from vineyards in Rutherford and Stags Leap, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It is aged in French Oak barrels for 16 months. The taste is full and smooth, with European style tannins and notes of spice – a fine wine whose quality equates well to its $40 retail price. You would serve this with your finest beef tenderloin.

The Luke Donald Collection wines are the result of a friendship with Bill Terlato, President and CEO, who believes the Els and Donald wines carry credibility, not because of their sports fame, but because the golfers play serious roles in the wine making process.

“Our Ernie Els and Luke Donald wines are outside the normal ‘celebrity’ wines,” Terlato says, “in that the athletes don’t lend their names for a fee. Ernie owns the vineyards and several wineries in South Africa, and Luke was involved in each step of producing and blending the wines under his California label.”

Luke Donald Claret - photo courtesy of Terlato Wine Group

Do the golfers’ names command a higher price at retail? No, says Terlato, “Our wines do not carry a celebrity premium. Our goal is to produce an exceptional wine that reflects the professional golfer’s particular taste. These are wines from acclaimed vineyards for serious wine buffs.”

My guess is that the athletes’ names are “market neutral” to sales volume. Notoriety may garner interest among the golf crowd, but yet, be limited by those who don’t recognize an athlete’s name or who think wine couldn’t possibly be good if it comes from a guy who hits a golf ball 300 yards for a living. In the end, as it should be, the wine must deliver to succeed.

Tangley Oak Dining Room - photo courtesy of Terlato Wine Group

Beyond the wines, our tasting at Tangley Oaks was impressive for the things our hosts did not do during two hours of cruising food and wine stations. The Terlato family could have gushed about their big house and their success, but they did not and kept to the subject at hand: experiencing good wine. They could have offered “tours” of the mansion’s 61 rooms (would love to have taken one), but instead confined the event to several first floor rooms. Since acquiring the historic home over ten years ago, they could have junked it up with gaudy reproduction furniture, but have chosen to retain and use many of the original furnishings from the Armour days, thus preserving a long-ago time in North Shore history. The evening was a lesson in reserve and good taste.

To learn more:

http://www.terlatowines.com/wines/california/luke_donald/

By the way, Donald, in town for the BMW championship, finished in 10th place and earned a spot among the final thirty players at the Fed Ex Cup in Atlanta.

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