Magnotta

Magnotta Winery is a proud, Ontario family winery and grape grower steeped in innovative winemaking and local history for 30 years.
We grow grapes from our 180 acres of family-owned and operated vineyards in the heart of the Niagara Peninsula, one of the finest wine regions in the world, to create our award winning, 100% Ontario vintages. For additional grapes, we support the agricultural growth of the province by partnering with local independent grape growers.
From grape to bottle to the table, we are there every step of the way to handcraft our wines. The entire winemaking process – harvesting, crushing, fermentation, vinification and bottling – is managed exclusively by our winemakers and production team at our expansive facilities located in Vaughan and Beamsville.
With over 180 wines to satisfy any budget or occasion including VQA, premium and specialty wines and our world-famous Icewines, we sell directly to the consumer at winery-direct prices through our 13 independent stores in Ontario.
It all started 30 years ago with just two wines and an uphill battle that would last years but our guts and brawn would earn us the hearts of consumers for giving them a better way to buy wine that wasn’t available before. The odds were stacked against us as a young company back in 1990 and many onlookers in the industry likely didn’t expect us to still be here years later. Our customers thought otherwise.
The story is now well-known. The road to co-founders Gabe and Rossana Magnotta’s success was paved with adversity, innovation, creativity, good people and great wine. In 1990, they saw a world of opportunity when the LCBO made a last minute announcement that they did not have shelf space available for Magnotta products.
The panic triggered an emergency re-draft of their marketing plans: Sell directly to the public and offer consumers a high-quality, low-cost alternative to the LCBO. An overwhelming response from the public followed. Ten years later, Gabe and Rossana reached a mediated settlement with the LCBO and several of their Icewines entered into LCBO stores soon afterwards. Magnotta and the LCBO now enjoy an expanded relationship with our G. Marquis collection of wines, re-branded Kittling Ridge wines and other select products available at the LCBO.
As part of the small group of emerging wineries behind the wine renaissance in Ontario over the last 30 years, we are proud that we’ve helped evolve Canada into the world-class wine producer it is today, bringing Ontario’s distinctive wines to centre stage in international wine competitions. Today we are the third largest winery in Ontario, one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed companies for over 10 consecutive years and have earned more than 4,500 awards for product excellence.​

Author: Caroline Porsiel