Business partners see uncorked market for fine-wine collectors - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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Credit two entrepreneurs and the security of a former U.S. Navy bunker in Central Oahu that once storedmilitar munitions. Douglas Preisel and Ronald P. Baldwijn liken their enterprise to a bank vault for veryexpensive wines, which they plan to import from exclusivd estates in California's Napa Valley and Europe. "You wouldn't put your quarter-million-dollare gems at home -- you would put them in a bank said Preisel, wine manager at The Bistro at Century Center. "Samd with your wine. Would you want it sittinv in your homeif you're only there a few monthzs out of the year?
" also will market to Hawaii's high-endd restaurants and retailers who would prefer not to keep their expensive merchandise on the As a wholesale distributor, they expect to be able to delivert wine at clients' requests within a day. Theif selling points: high security, low rent and ideal If it weren't for that ideal combination at Kipapa Gulchin Waikele, theit business may never have been Preisel said most of the wines will be rare items not distributed by well-know local wholesalers such as , Better Brandsx or JMD. Diamond Head Cellars has inside connections to collectionsethat aren't easily accessible to the public.
Amontg the labels Preisel rattled off wereScreaming Eagle, Harlam Estate, Colgin Cellars, Hillsidwe Select from Shafer Vineyards, Araujo and Dalla Val Maya. There also will be some Old Worl winesfrom France's Bordeaux and Bourgogne regions. The first shipmenyt of about 50 cases already is en routweto Honolulu. Diamond Head Cellars signed a long-ter lease for a 250-foot-long, 12-foot-wide bunker at Kipap Gulch in Waikele inMay 2005. Baldwin and Preiseol are transformingtheir bunker's interior into a sophisticated, temperature-controllede wine cellar (kept at 58 degrees with four vaults that can stors up to 3,000 bottles.
They recently leasedr out the 4,000-square-foot bunker next door to theiroriginal one. Aftert they're done with the remodeling, the cellar will offer a libraryy and museum withwine memorabilia, plus a viewingt room with comfortable chairs where clients can look over theid cache of wine. "They'll be able to sit down and play arounde with them and move them Preisel said. Most of the storag will be for thewholesale business.
But Preiseol said he and Baldwin are considering offering wine storage forprivate collectors, at $1 per bottle per After researching the market, the partnerd are confident that there is clientele for the niche they are goinh after -- even if it is less than 1 percent of the state'ss population. Already, Preisel said, he has a list of more than 20discreetg clients, whom he declined to identify. Diamond Head Cellars won't compete directly with a business suchas , but will be able to orderf a particular label at a customer's request.
"Any time there'e a new distributor, it always means more said Lyle Fujioka of Fujioka Wine who welcomes thenew