Storage facilities pamper precious wines and their doting owners

Considering that Naples is home to the world's most successful annual charity wine auction, it's no surprise that passion for the fruit of the vine runs high.

But with the vicissitudes of weather and power supplies, coupled with heavy humidity, Southwest Florida can be tough on wines. Add to that the dearth of storage space in Florida homes and the seasonal nature of many residents, and it's easy to see why there are multiple storage facilities in the region that specialize in the tender loving care of wines.

"Many of our customers have a need for temperature-controlled storage," says Denise Grosman, property manager of Fairway Trade Village in Naples. "A number of people lost their wine collections during hurricanes."

It only takes one such experience to make believers out of most collectors.

"Hurricanes and power losses can cause extensive damage to wine collections that can be worth $100,000 or more, and public storage is going to have a backup power generator to protect the investment," says Frank Pulice, owner of Austin's Wine Cellar in Fort Myers. "When storing wines at home there is the risk of extensive damage" even when the home is equipped with temperature and humidity controls, he adds. Storage businesses have large generators, ensuring that the wine will be protected in the event of a prolonged power outage. And then there's the question of security, something most storage facilities are better equipped to handle than the average homeowner.

JIM MCLAUGHLIN / FLORIDA WEEKLY Wine storage at Haskell's Fine wines deserve classy digs, and that's exactly what businesses such as Cypress Self Storage and Fairways Storage and Wine Cellar in Naples offer.

Off Immokalee Road, Cypress Self Storage welcomes customers with a lobby done in a wine motif by an interior designer. Marble countertops, antiques and limitededition art create an atmosphere that seems more like an upscale hotel or private club than a storage facility. It offers 40 vaults inside a larger vault with temperature and humidity control. Prices range from $29 to $99 a month. One wine-loving customer even had a wine-tasting area built inside his 8- by 10- foot space.

"We have refrigeration instead of air conditioning, and keep it at 55 degrees and 70 percent humidity," says manager Steve Bryant. Customers must use a security code to gain access. The facility also accepts wine shipments for customers and places the new acquisitions directly in their vaults.

At Fairways Storage and Wine Cellar off Pine Ridge Road in the Fairways Trade Village Complex, customers include private collectors as well as restaurants, retail stores and the Naples Winter Wine Festival, Grosman says. Each can rent the amount of space their collections require.

"Customers will graduate to a larger vault (as their collections expand), and find it is cheaper and more secure than storing at home," she says. "Some customers will store their collections here for several years before making the investment to build a wine cellar at home.

Owned by Larry Andrews, a founding trustee of the Naples Winter Wine Festival, the facility donated space to the festival the first three years. Festival wines now fill three buildings on site. Storage vaults vary in size, from smaller ones that can hold 25 cases up to those that can store 1,000 cases. Some have sliding drawers for easier access. Units cost $75 to $400 per month.

Haskell's The Wine Store on Pine Ridge Road has vault storage with individual spaces that can accommodate from 15 to hundreds of cases. Monthly charges run from $30 to $150. The store also keeps wine for seasonal residents, storing it in a larger area that is used for retail inventory.

"We have a number of customers who purchase wines from us and then go north for the summer," says Haskell's manager Angelo Fantozzi. "We store their wines for free in our storage area and then they can pick them up when they return."

Estero resident Tom Schwalm has been collecting wines since the 1960s. He rents space at Corkscrew Village Self Storage at Corkscrew Road and U.S. 41 for his 2,000-bottle collection.

"The only negative that I see is the convenience factor," he says. "I have to drive to get another bottle of wine if I don't have enough at the house. The plus side is that I do not have to convert a room in the house for wine storage and set up a generator and refrigeration/humidity control there."

Jim McCracken has been an oenophile since working for a large distributor in Chicago in the late 1970s. He learned about wine from top importers and winemakers, passing that knowledge on to his customers. He went on to open wine shops in half a dozen cities and managed restaurants and country club dining rooms in which wine played a prominent role. He even made his own — using California grapes and aging them in oak casks — for three years at The Barrel Room in Fort Myers.