Remembering Feisty Vintner Gabe Magnotta

 
Ontario maverick fought the LCBO and became a respected industry figure

Vaughan, Ontario -- Without the cooperation of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Gabriele Magnotta managed in less than five years to turn Magnotta Winery into the fifth largest winery in the province. He and his wife Rossana established the winery in 1990; by the end of the decade, it was Ontario’s third largest.  

When Gabe died at his home in Richmond Hill on Dec. 30, 2009, of complications from Lyme disease, he had a showcase facility in Vaughan, Ontario, that included a state-of-the-art winery, microbrewery and distillery, along with a collection of original Canadian art enjoyed by thousands of visitors each year. He had seven winery stores, 180 acres of grapes in the Niagara Peninsula and 351 vineyard acres in Chile.

During Magnotta’s first 10 years in the wine business, he was often the center of controversy. His battles with the LCBO were legendary; he incurred the displeasure of the Ontario wine industry, and he was known for threatening or actually filing lawsuits against the LCBO, VQA, wine writers and others.

While many people looked upon him as a renegade, or were simply afraid of him, he felt that he was in a struggle to survive. “We’re a peaceful lot, but prepared to fight for what is right and honorable,” he told Wine East during a 1996 interview, during which he talked about his life and the controversies he had been involved in.

Magnotta’s involvement in wine started early. In Andretta, Italy, at the age of 8, he filled carafes of wine for customers in the family tavern. When he was 11, his family moved to Ontario, and Magnotta eventually attended York University. He became a high school teacher for a brief time before becoming a partner in the Vin-Bon Juice Company in 1980.

In 1987 he and Rossana started the Festa Juice Co., and for three years they sold juice to home winemakers and began to think about opening a winery. When Charal Winery in Blenheim, Ontario, went out of business in 1989, Magnotta bought it for the winery license and winemaking equipment. The equipment was moved to Vaughan, north of Toronto, and the name on the license was changed to Magnotta Winery.

Charal had between 15 and 17 listings with the LCBO, and Magnotta applied for those listings. He intended to include his Festa Red and Festa White at $5.95. The LCBO initially said he could have seven listings, but a few weeks before his winery opened, that number was reduced to four. Then, days before shipping his wine to the LCBO, he was told there was no room for his wine in the warehouse.

With the hope of selling his wine at the LCBO stores gone, he decided to sell his wine direct at the winery for $3.95. His wines, which had 30% Ontario and 70% imported wine content, proved to be popular. About 14 months later, after the LCBO noticed how well his wines were selling, it offered him listings. The LCBO would not allow him to undersell their stores, however, and he was given 30 days to raise the price in his winery to $5.15.

Magnotta turned down the listings and, with one exception for a Vidal ice wine, refused to list his wines with the LCBO for the next 10 years.
As a result of the free trade agreement with the United States in 1987, newly established wineries in Ontario could have only the single retail outlet that came with the license. Without the ability to sell wine through the LCBO, Magnotta was forced to look for alternative ways to sell his wines.

He knew that LCBO-licensed manufacturers’ representatives were allowed to stock and sell wine in their non-winery outlets. Magnotta hired his own representatives to sell his wine. The LCBO had his representatives arrested on the grounds that only the LCBO warehouse could stock wines, and wines stored there could only be sold through LCBO stores. Magnotta took the LCBO to court and won.

Another marketing possibility was to purchase other licenses by acquiring wineries and breweries with grandfathered winery licenses. By doing this, he was able to open seven stores before the LCBO stopped him by requiring future license acquisitions to have vineyards.

Magnotta had a motto for his wines: “Affordable Excellence.” As he described it, “Innovation + Quality + Value = Affordable Excellence.” He was selling his wines -- 70 products by that time -- at bargain prices and making a profit. In 1991 the winery produced 25,000 cases with $2 million in sales, and by 1995, production reached 150,000 cases and $15 million in sales (all prices and sales figures in this Headline are listed in Canadian dollars). According to the Wines & Vines IndustryBase, Magnotta Winery Corp. currently produces some 400,000 cases per year.

The industry as a whole became increasingly upset with Magnotta’s marketing practices, partly because he was candid about stating where his wines came from: In fact, Magnotta was proud of their origins. Other wineries also were importing juice and wine for blending, but they were not telling the public that they were doing so. (For background on this issue, search Cellared in Canada on this website.)

Time passed, and Magnotta’s reputation for making threats and filing lawsuits faded. By 2001 it was possible to say the relationship between him and the rest of the industry had taken a complete turnaround. He became a respected and involved member of the wine community. His fight with the LCBO and his own innovations had brought about positive changes in the wine industry.

Gabe Magnotta contracted Lyme disease seven years before his death in December 2009. As his struggle with Lyme disease continued, his wife Rossana, who had always been his partner in the business, took over the management of the Magnotta Winery as the CEO and president, with Gabe as the executive chairman.