Good Mansion Wines Celebrates 10 Years of Serving the Best in Italian Food Imports | News, sports, jobs

Good Mansion Wines owner Dominic Cerrone shows off with white truffles imported from Italy. (photo provided)

WHEELING – Good Mansion Wines is celebrating 10 years of importing the best Italian food – just in time for the holidays.

“This holiday season, we are offering our largest import inventory ever,” said Domenic Cerrone, owner of the wine shop that opened in 2006 and has grown into much more.

It all started in 2013, when Sironi imported the first monovarietal (single olive) olive oil from the Marche region of Italy.

“I wanted a good olive oil for my home, made from valuable Ascolana olives but when I placed a small order of it, there was an explosion of interest,” he said. “For the first time, customers were able to obtain premium, high-quality olive oil, triple-labeled by the Italian specialty food company Gambero Rosso, rather than the synthetic products found in large retail boxes in the United States. This happened at the same time as Olive oil concerns in the American market, where it has been confirmed that much of the oil on shelves and grocery stores is neither olive nor from Italy.

Customers were quickly attracted, and Cerrone realized that there was demand for precious regional produce throughout Italy, from balsamic vinegar to tomato products, pasta, rice and more.

Creating a direct supply chain from grower and producer to Good Mansion Wines, Cerrone traveled to trade shows, farms and Italian facilities to work with these family producers, forming very close friendships along the way.

“It’s always a very special occasion when you know and trust the people who make the food you eat. How rare that is in today’s industrial consumption model,” he added.

Good Mansion Wines has become synonymous in the Italian export market with the search for emerging small family businesses bringing distinctive regional products to the international market for the first time. This includes working hard to register it with the US Food and Drug Administration and educating consumers about it.

“This is much more than just importing. It is a comprehensive process for both small Italian family producers, as well as the American consumer,” he said.

According to Cerrone, food in Italy is the culmination and essential expression of tradition and family.

“Food traditions are passed down from generation to generation, innovated and improved,” he said. “In America, food is largely based on fads and trends, and the family bond is weaker. So, it takes a lot of education and promotion to get our American customers to focus away from gimmicks and fads and connect with these authentically grown and handcrafted products.

“Our first project with olive oil was with Italian food consultant Rita Loreti from Rome, who was just emerging into the emerging international export scene for small, high-quality Italian foods at the time, and was consulting with the family business producing this oil. We worked together closely.” Close in the early years, we traveled together and identified foods of great interest to the American consumer. In fact, our company was the first to bring some products to the US market, many of which are now widely exhibited in the US 10 years later.

“I started working with Dominic more than 10 years ago,” explained Loreti, a food export manager in Rome. “I quickly realized that he was a pioneer in high-quality foods in the United States. He had a desire to import extra virgin olive oil from small producers who were recognized for their outstanding production.

“Over the years, he also imported salty and sweet products that were later taken up by other importers or distributors for their unique taste: capers from the island of Pantelleria (Sicily), organic tomatoes from the Baglioni farm, and balsamic vinegar from Acetomodina (Emilia) from Apulia.” Romania), Pasta Mancini (Le Marche), and many more. He has a special touch to explore food goodness.

Good Mansion Wines now offers more options than ever for gift giving or enjoying a special treat at home. There are hundreds of options in everything from fine French chocolates, delicious Italian panettone, exquisite fig products, pastas and Italian sauces.

Imported foods perfectly complement the selection of fine wines, ports and dessert wines from all the world’s major wine producing regions. In fact, this little shop can lay claim to the largest selection of European wines in the tri-state area.

“We pride ourselves on providing the best for Wheeling,” Cerrone added. “We are the US importer who was the first to market some of our Italian food imports, some of which now regularly appear on larger e-commerce sites, national food media and international shopping venues such as airports through subsequent importers.”

The menu also includes international cheeses, French pastries, artisan Italian coffee, and a daily brunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Cerrone said he wants to offer customers a one-stop shopping site for their holiday needs, comparing it to the Eataly experience available in Chicago, New York, Boston and other major cities.

“I like to compare Good Mansion Wines to a full market house, but with products carefully purchased and sourced, from fresh bakery and pastry products to meat and cheese products, and even still food and wine,” he said.

This makes it an attractive shopping location for regular customers from Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Columbus who drive specifically to Wheeling for products not available in these larger markets. There is also an online e-commerce site that serves customers all over the United States.

“Our biggest online markets are actually New York City and Los Angeles,” Cerrone said.

Good Mansion Wines is located at 95-14 Street, Wheeling, and is open 9am-7pm daily, with special hours 9am-2pm on Thanksgiving Day and 9am-6pm on Christmas Eve. It is closed on Christmas and Easter days.

For more information, call 304-233-2632 or visit goodmansionwines.com.