A hushed quiet and a palpable chill in both temperature and atmosphere falls over the cellar of Vaughan, Ont.’s Magnotta Winery as Rossana Magnotta takes a moment to reflect in the presence of the seemingly endless rows of wine barrels sprawled around her in the winery's basement. 

Magnotta's reflection appears less so for the product itself, but for the more than three-decade journey she has been on, overseeing the creation of more than 180 distinct wines produced in a multitude of varieties and styles as one of Ontario’s most prestigious wineries.

Yet, the bottles she has found a renewed pride in are different. They are not destined for another international competition, private sale, LCBO shelf or to contribute to the more than 5,000 awards attributed to the family name gracing each bottle.  

Advertisement

Her newest wines are instead destined for a humble place atop church altars across the country. 

Magnotta shared the long-standing inspiration behind the recently launched Archangel Series of wines — four pure, VQA-certified sacramental wines made from 100-per-cent Ontario-grown grapes. Launched in October, Magnotta’s newest line has received an official letter of approbation from Bishop Bryan Bayda of the Ukrainian Roman Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada, having met and exceeded official guidelines for consecration and use in Holy Mass and Divine Liturgy. 

The Archangel Series consists of two red and two white wines, all crafted to meet strict Canon Law requirements for sacramental use. Produced in small batches with careful attention to purity and ecclesial standards, each label also features the unique artwork “2 Angels” by Christa Gampp, pieces selected by Magnotta over two decades ago with her vision and hope they would one day grace a sacramental wine. 

For Magnotta, the CEO of the winery, the newest venture in her storied career is something deeply personal and a reflection of both her devout Catholic faith and continued philanthropic commitments. 

“ After spending 35 years in this winery and creating wonderful products for the public, this is something intimate (for me). I could have decided not to do this, and I'd still be successful. I’m doing this because I want to, and that gives me great pride and excitement,” she said. 

It’s the same pride and excitement she held as one of three daughters of an Italian family originally from the Abruzzo region and an upbringing where she explored winemaking with her father. Magnotta coincidentally entered the wine business through her husband, Gabriel, a York University business graduate with an entrepreneurial spirit. 

Beginning as Festa Juice, a company supplying concentrate for home winemaking, she stepped in to help, initially thinking it would be temporary as she raised a young family with a plan to return to her career as a  medical laboratory technologist. 

Launching in 1990 as Magnotta Winery, the family-run business was immediately hit hard by the early 1990s recession, as well as a now infamous battle with the LCBO for shelf space, a turbulent period she recalls vividly. 

“ We had invested everything we had, including our home at the time, with three small children to take care of. It was a very challenging, scary time.  We did our best, and we sold very strongly directly to our consumers in Ontario, and we’ve since expanded to offer more than 200 products, including branching out to beer, spirits and enjoying an expanded relationship with the LCBO for select products,” she said.

Sadly, as the winery continued to succeed and expand, the Magnottas suffered a devastating loss with Gabriel’s death in December 2009 at age 60 from a heart attack that stemmed from the effects of Lyme disease. 

“ I didn't know what I was going to do with my life because it felt like I could hardly breathe any more, I didn’t think I could survive without him,” she recalled. 

Advertisement

With his memory as the driving force and backed by her strength in spirit, she founded the G. Magnotta Foundation for Vector-Borne Diseases in 2012 and partnered with the University of Guelph in 2017, having since amassed millions of dollars in donations as Canada's first translational Lyme research lab. 

Apart from the foundation itself, Magnotta’s expansion into the world of sacramental wine also holds a special nod to her husband’s enduring legacy by name.  

“We have Michael and Raphael as the red wines, and Uriel and Gabriel as the white wines, and the Gabriel wine is after my husband. I've always had an affinity for St. Gabriel as far back as my husband coming to my home. I remember my parents being ecstatic because he is the patron saint of Abruzzo,” she said.

“Because of its higher alcohol content and as a sweeter white wine, Gabriel is the most complicated product to produce in a clean, beautiful way with the extra, hand-done and air-dried work. With that, the one that took the most care and love by hand, I named after him.” 

All four Archangel wines have been produced in small batches, roughly 4,000 bottles each, as opposed to the typical 10,000 to 15,000 for normal wine variants, and are made from pure grape wine with no additives for flavour or softening.  While sacramental wine is made in the same wine-making processes that regular wine is, Canon Law ensures extra care so that, whether by eliminating pesticides, fertilizers, sugar additives, each wine is as pure and clean as possible. 

The Archangel Series is being sold directly to churches in parishes at considerably lower costs, roughly $35 a case less than typical Californian imported varieties while eliminating exchange fluctuations, tariff charges and high freight costs. Free pickup is also offered at all 14 Magnotta stores across Ontario. 

Ross Raby, Magnotta’s manufacturer sales representative, said the winery has already shipped a pallet of sacramental wine to churches in Winnipeg, with product also reaching Alberta and various parts of Ontario since launching last fall. An Easter surge in sacramental wine purchases, as churches finish their pre-existing imported stock, is expected, he said.  

“I have personally done a tasting for over 230 priests in three dioceses, and it’s been getting rave reviews thus far, so it’s been encouraging to see that. While this won’t be available on the market or to consumers, clergy have really been loving it, both in taste and accessibility,” he said.  

Magnotta turns a bottle of Gabriel in her hand, eyeing the label she had first imagined in 1997, as the weight of time seems to settle in. A project that simmered on the back burner through decades of both tremendous growth and loss has finally come to life as a tangible tribute to her career, faith and life at large. She said that, while the deaths of her husband and her son years later could have extinguished the dream, they instead refined it. 

So too as time matured her grapes, it matured her as well.  

“ If I hadn't had my faith, I would have been lost, but instead I'm vibrant and so excited about what God has given me in this opportunity.  God works in many strange ways. I thought I’d die as a little old lady in some lab, but I changed. When one door closed, another one opened, and I got planted in an area where I could’ve never in a million years believed I'd be in,” she said. 

Now, in a newly fruitful season of her life, the Archangel Series symbolizes not just any other wine line, but rather a way to remain a faithful servant woven more deeply into the life of the Catholic Church. 

Advertisement

With the dream full circle, and with a knowing smile, her thoughts turn to her late husband. 

“ My Gabriel would be very proud of me right now, he really would be. I think he’d say, ‘Only my Rosanna could have done this,’ ” she said, eyes locked with the bottle.