A company with experienced roots.

Michael Magnello brings more than 40 years of fine wine experience to MJM Imports. His background began in the nineteen sixties as the second generation to Connecticut’s largest retail fine wine merchant. In the mid-seventies he moved on to wholesale distribution. His fine wine wholesale experience covers twenty-five years during which time he owned and managed two different fine wine distribution companies. From there he moved to supplier representation where he was the Chief Operating Officer of three different national fine wine importers. In 2008 he formed his own wine import company: MJM Imports. Michael has literally traveled the world in search of fine wine. In California as small estates were first emerging (1966), and in Australia, Chile and Argentina (1984) he could be considered to have been among the earliest pioneers discovering fine wine producers long before their viticulture regions became popular in the U.S. market. He was among the very first fine wine wholesalers (1985) to focus his company’s efforts on the emerging and re-invented fine wine business in Italy.

Today, the mission of MJM Imports is to select only a few producers from each of the key focus regions to represent in the U.S. market. The key focus regions are Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina and South Africa. Each producer must share the common ingredients that M J Magnello feels are necessary to be successful in today’s fine wine business: family ownership with actively involved succession in place now to guarantee a continuous path of development for the next twenty years; estate produced wines that encompass both indigenous and international varieties; wines that can come to market as a value, not merely competitive within their set; the will and the structural ability to make new wines jointly with M J Magnello that push the envelope of their wine making expressions to places they have not previously explored.

“Working with wine producers who possess all of the components I look for allows me to bring exciting, value-driven wines to the ongoing emerging wine culture in the United States market. In this way MJM Imports will continue to be a relevant source for fine wine at value prices for years to come.”