Avenue Vine

The blaze, the first of two big warehouse fires in the Bay Area on Wednesday, began around 3:30 p.m. and was expected to burn into the morning, said Vallejo fire spokesman Bill Tweedy.

Wines Central converted the old military fortress three years ago into a 240,000-square-foot specialty warehouse that stored more than 500,000 cases of rare vintages believed to be worth up to $100 million, officials said. Clients included wineries, private collectors and some other businesses.

One firefighter was taken to the hospital for heat exhaustion, but no other injuries were reported in the blaze, which depleted the resources of Solano County's fire departments.

Wines Central was billed on its Web site as having "state-of-the-art" fire monitoring systems and a safe and secure environment that provided "the highest standard of care," because of dense concrete walls, its concrete roof and heavy steel doors. The site was previously used to store Navy torpedoes and possibly atomic bombs, Tweedy said.

But all of that concrete and steel proved harmful Wednesday, as it prevented firefighters from entering the building. The fire burned in the upper mezzanine of the warehouse, where floors are made of timber and full of wood palettes.

"It is not safe to go through the doors because the roof might collapse, and things might fall," Tweedy said. "We have no way to get access."

Firefighters finally started to enter the building around 10 p.m., but did not expect to have the fire under control until this morning.

Wines Central stores both private collections and casks and bottles from Napa, Sonoma and San Rafael wineries, according to its Web site. It also provided shipping and distribution services.

All of Vallejo's seven fire engines were at the blaze. In addition, 14 engines from Solano and Contra Costa County agencies and three air units to provide both water and light were called to help.

"All of our resources are going to be here until morning," Tweedy said. "Solano County's resources are stripped. We are calling on the state to have them send resources to cover our stations."

In a February interview with the Vacaville Reporter, Polverino described the warehouse's clients: "Our clients include small collectors, marketing companies, overflow warehousing and wineries' library collections, which are the history of the winery by vintage examples."

The climate-controlled warehouse also stored sauces and other items for the Francis Ford Coppola brand and C&H Sugar, as well as specialty olive oils.

Officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the wine and water mixture should not flow into the storm drains or bay waters because it would be harmful to fish.

Workers from Vallejo's Sanitation and Flood Control District came to the scene and said they would prevent that from happening, Tweedy said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

A second warehouse fire sent huge flames shooting up into the sky in Oakland on Wednesday night just before 10. The six-alarm blaze in the 600 block of Hegenberger Road burned through a warehouse that formerly housed a Home Base store, said Oakland fire Lt. Melinda Drayton.

"Two-thirds of the building is fully involved, and we are fighting it from the outside and above," Drayton said late Wednesday. The building had been closed for about four years, and a private developer had bought the land and had been issued a demolition permit by the city, Drayton said.

Officials at Wines Central could not be reached for comment, but published reports have put the estimated losses of wines and food items at up to $100 million. The facility reportedly stored wine for nearly 100 wineries in Northern California and some 40 private collectors. About 6 million bottles were reportedly inside at the time of the fire.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has locked down the site and is sending 30 agents to investigate the cause of the blaze. As customers are not yet allowed access to the facility, estimating losses is difficult. On Thursday and Friday, many vintners milled on the outskirts of the site, anxious to learn more about their wine.

Many prominent names in California wine kept wine at the facility. Tom Leonardini Sr., owner of Whitehall Lane, said about 5,000 cases of his 2002 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon were stored in the warehouse. "That has a wholesale value of $2.5 million," Leonardini said. "We're insured, but we're crossing our fingers it wasn't all lost, because that was the last of the 2002. We were saving it for the holidays."

Justin Vineyards in Paso Robles had 10,000 cases of wine in the warehouse, including a significant portion of its 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2003 Isosceles, its flagship red blend. "I don't know the extent of the damage," owner Justin Baldwin said. "I assume it's all gone. I have wine stored at another warehouse so we will have an '03 release."

Some wineries may not be so lucky. Von Strasser Winery in Napa Valley had all of its 2003 vintage wines in the facility, and about 90 percent of its 2002s. "I haven't had a chance to go in there or taste the wines," Rudy von Strasser said. "But you have to plan for the worst."

Sherwin Family Vineyards in Napa had 1,600 cases of wine in storage, including all of its 2003 estate Cabernet Sauvignon and the remainder of its stock of 2002. "We have a few large-format bottles from 2003, but otherwise it's gone," Linda Sherwin said. "It's just so bizarre. We had just brought the wine down there Oct. 1."

Juan Mercado of Realm Cellars believes the winery has lost all of its 2003 production of Cabernet Sauvignon and its remaining reserves of 2002. Realm's winemaker, Michael Hirby, also had wines from his own label, Relic, stored there. The entire stock of 2003 wines, about 300 cases, and half of his 2004s, about 250 cases, may be lost. "We had just bottled those 2004s in September and took them in," Hirby's partner, Schatzi Throckmorton, said. "We were really excited about the '04s, so it's a hard loss."

Brice Jones, the founder of Sonoma-Cutrer Winery, believes he has lost the entire debut vintage of his new project, Goldridge. About 1,200 cases of the Pinot Noir Russian River Valley 2004 were stored at Wines Central. "Our insurance company is saying it's all lost," Jones said.

Saintsbury, in Carneros, lost little in the way of new-release wines, but its entire wine library--about 2,000 cases dating back to the winery's earliest years--is being written off. "The wines were stored on the mezzanine, which had wood floors, so we're very sanguine about retrieving any of it," said Saintsbury cofounder Richard Ward. The library included many large-format bottles and vertical collections used for tastings. "It's hard to put a value on a lot of those wines. They can't be replaced. The worst part is losing all that history."

The fire started at 3:37 p.m. on Oct. 12 and raged out of control for nearly seven hours despite the efforts of more than 80 firefighters from around the area.

Ironically, the warehouse's unique selling point as a wine-storage facility hampered firefighters. Built in the 1940s, the facility was a former bunker at the decommissioned Mare Island Naval Base; it was once used to store torpedoes and bombs. Its walls and roof are 3-foot-thick reinforced concrete, which offered perfect insulation for wine storage but also limited access to the fire inside.

"All the heat and the flames were contained by the building. It was a very intense and drawn-out process in containing the fire," said Bill Tweedy, public information officer for the Vallejo Fire Department.

The facility was reopened for wine storage in 2002, and the company's Web site reported that the warehouse had a "state-of-the-art" fire-monitoring system. The structure, according to fire officials, sustained about $10 million in damage, but there was no official estimate for the loss of wine. "We're not wine evaluators," Tweedy said. "Most of the 240,000-square-foot building did suffer some sort of damage."

No employees of Wines Central were hurt, and only two firefighters suffered minor injuries, Tweedy said.

While rumors are rampant in the Northern California wine community that the fire was arson, Tweedy cautioned against speculation. "Currently this fire is under investigation due to the fact that it's suspicious in nature, and that's how we treat all fires until we prove otherwise," he said.

This is not the first time that Napa, Sonoma and other North Coast wineries have lost wine in a fire. In 2000, a blaze in a warehouse at Frank-Rombauer Cellars, where many small producers stored their wines, damaged more than 84,000 cases, worth at least $36 million, from 20 wineries. Some of the wines were later picked up by a salvage company and sold with their original labels, prompting lawsuits from angry vintners who didn't want damaged product on the market.

Tweedy said officials should know more about the Vallejo blaze by Sunday or Monday, but it's uncertain when wineries and collectors will have access to their wines.

While most vintners say their wines are insured, their policies vary, and some may take a financial hit. The loss goes beyond money. Producers wonder, for example, what their salespeople will do for a year or two while there is little or no wine to sell. They also worry about losing hard-won placement on retail shelves and restaurant wine lists. "My concern is not financial," Baldwin said. "It's keeping my visibility and my continuity in the marketplace."