Rossana Magnotta: A woman leading the wine business

Rossana Magnotta is a woman leading the Canadian wine business, but can it follow?

Rossana DiZio Magnotta is the co-founder and president of Magnotta Winery and a woman who radiates both femininity and strength. Like many a good wine, her strength comes from her roots. Rossana was born in Italy but moved to Canada in 1954, when she was a child. Her family spent their first five years living in poverty in a small town in northern Ontario where her father, a cabinetmaker, tried to find work in the mines. Her mother, a former dress designer in Italy, designed costumes for skaters in the northern towns. She made gorgeous costumes and it put her on the map in the design industry.

When they moved to Toronto in 1959 her mother was sought after by clothing manufacturers, but with two young girls at home she decided to create her own home business instead. Rossana saw the passion and love her mother had for her career and throughout her life she watched as her parents made personal sacrifices to achieve what they desired. Her father believed that his daughters could do anything they wanted to and taught them carpentry and how to fix things. “He didn’t feel that women were incapable but that we could do things just as well as any man.”

Rossana’s relationship with her parents is filled with admiration. She describes her father as the perfect gentleman, a man who was an advocate for women far before his time. She believes that having two strong parents inspired her. They taught her that she could be or do whatever she wanted.

Rossana began her career by studying medical laboratory technology and worked in a hospital environment doing microbiology and biochemistry for about eight years until her first child was born. After she had him she knew she wasn’t going to go back to work for some time and had her second child three years later, and a daughter 16 months after that.

How did she feel about becoming a stay-at-home mother? “I loved being at home with my children and I kept very busy. I baked bread and cookies. I made root beer and wine. I had the instinct and desire to make wonderful dishes. Being a laboratory technologist you like to experiment and discover new recipes. On top of that I kept up my studies because I worried that I’d lose my medical skills. I wanted to enjoy every moment I had with my children at home and have something that I would cherish forever.”

At the time her husband was operating a company that made and sold Festa Juice (grape juice for wine making) to home winemakers. But he needed someone with technical experience in the chemistry area. He was a businessman, but did not have the technical background needed for the business. With a background in biochemistry and a sensitive palate, Rossana had the skills he lacked. She began helping her husband in his business and they decided to open a store that would sell Festa Juice to wine makers, with a lab to offer free analyses to customers who were having problems making wine from their grape juice or other competitors’ products.

Rossana was surprised at the reaction she got from the home winemakers. “I didn’t bargain for the response I would get from the ethnic men who were our customers. They would come in and look at me and ask how I could possibly tell them how to make wine. Females don’t make wine in their communities. They would say they were born in the grapes and start talking to me about the old country and questioning what I could possibly know that they didn’t. I wasn’t prepared for it. My husband was a very secure man. He wasn’t like them. I got more and more frustrated. The men wouldn’t accept what I could teach them. I was a good wine-maker and knew that they should be listening to me. I knew I could help them.”

She was so frustrated she thought about quitting, but true to her nature she couldn’t just walk away. So she decided to write a little booklet titled, “Six Easy Steps to Making Wine the Festa Way.” It explained how to make wine the right way, with a bunch of little tips scattered through it. She translated it into Italian and Spanish, the languages of her customers, and gave it away with every purchase of Festa Juice.

It worked. The men didn’t have to admit that the advice had come from her and yet they made better wine. What happened was a breakthrough for her as she says that, “One Italian would bring three of his brothers and when I got one Portuguese guy I got five of his cousins, so all of a sudden my business became an instant success.”

At that point they decided to go into the winery business. At the time there were two ways to go into it, either apply for a licence or buy an existing winery and transfer the licence. They decided to buy Charal Winery. It consisted of the licence and some equipment but not the actual land the winery was on.

“We changed the name to our family name: Magnotta. It was something we wanted to start and eventually pass on to our children. On Dec. 7, 1990 we opened shop and immediately got hit with the recession.”

On top of that the LCBO made a last–minute announcement that they had no shelf space for Magnotta products, which led to litigation. It took 10 years for Magnotta and the LCBO to reach a mediated settlement. “ We actually fought the most powerful monopoly in Canada. In the end we settled. It’s been a few years now and we have a good working relationship with the LCBO today. We were even honoured with winery of the month from them.”

Their strategy was the result of a re-draft of their marketing plans in 1990 when the LCBO refused them shelf space. “Our strategy was not to sell all our wines to the LCBO, because they make 58 percent profit and charge $1.62 per litre to distribute it for the manufacturer. This has nothing to do with taxes but is profit on top. Which means that if you buy a bottle of wine for about $10 to $12 the winery might make about $3. We were able to create a company that is very successful outside of the LCBO system. Until very recently, we were 100 percent out of their system and despite that we have managed to become the third largest winery in volume of sales in Ontario. Today we are the number one seller of ice wine in volume in the LCBO; we out-did Vincor, the largest winery in Canada.”

The 10 years of litigation was terribly hard on the Magnotta family, but hardship builds strength and, as Rossana remarks, “We had no choice, it was either fight or die.”

They started off with just the two of them and have grown to a company that employs over 100 people at seven locations, with an e-commerce site at www.magnotta.com that ships to people across the country. Magnotta now owns 180 acres of vineyards in Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula and over 350 acres in Chile’s Maipo Valley. Their Vaughn location also boasts a brewery and a distillery.

Rossana believes that working from the bottom-up helped them build an enterprise that is quick to act on new ideas. Magnotta Winery is a company that reflects the strength and character of its president – a woman who has struggled through hardship and come out on top.