Novellino Wines

Bel Mondo Italia Corporation

Makati City, Philippines

Email: info@novellinowines.com

Telefax: 02-8140800 / 049-5082774

Profile: Novellino all began as a twinkle in the eye of Vicente “Nonoy” Quimbo, a Filipino businessman with years of experience in the international beverage business. While travelling around the world, Quimbo took an interest in wine. Like so many around the world, it fascinated him. After all, wine is a drink that is so much more than a drink. For centuries, people have associated wine with such high regard; things like, culture, romance, and travel to name a few.

Nonoy dared to ask the question, if wine has such strong global appeal, why is wine consumption in the Philippines so low? Quimbo dedicated himself to unlocking this mystery. After careful examination and market research, Nonoy came to an answer: He attributed it to three key factors: Taste, Price, and Familiarity. Filipinos wanted to drink wine, but they didn’t like the taste of traditional dry wine, they assumed it was not within their budget, and they were often overwhelmed by the vast number of brands and varietals.

With this answer in mind, Nonoy set out to launch Novellino Wines. However, let it be clear that Nonoy Quimbo didn’t start Novellino Wines so that he could own a successful company, a successful company was simply the result of Novellino Wines fulfilling the (un-filled) aspirations of the Filipino people.

In order for Quimbo to address the three key factors of Taste, Price, and Familiarity he knew he would need to control more aspects of his operations than the modern wine business would allow him. He also knew he would inevitably need to source the grapes outside of the Philippines since the tropical climate doesn’t make for good grape growing conditions. It didn’t take long for Quimbo to come to a great realization…

The modern day winemaker gets his grapes from the Farmer, but the winemaker isn’t the only customer of the Farmer.  The Juice maker also sources his grapes from the Farmer.  Quimbo found that by engaging the Juice maker, rather than the winemaker, he could control the rest of the operational model, from wine-making to distribution. This phenomenon we like to call “The Novellino Way”.

It’s been said that Novellino wines can be found all over the world, and that’s because Filipinos are everywhere and they’ve been known to bring Novellino wines with them wherever they go. Officially, meaning through distributor arrangements, Novellino is sold in Vietnam, Emirates, and yes, even in that great wine country California. So far, it’s been more than pretty good for Novellino these past 14 years and counting. That twinkle in Nonoy’s eye?  It is still there. It’s the star that Novellino has now become and all that it envisions its future to be.