Tuesday, May. 01, 2001

Seattle's biggest wine shop recovers from NW quake

By Wine Press Northwest

When the ground started shaking Feb. 28 in the Pacific Northwest, many wineries and merchants lost bottles, none more than Chuck LeFevre, owner of Esquin Wine Merchants in Seattle.

Esquin, the Northwest's largest wine shop, lost 3,600 bottles in 30 seconds, a third of its inventory.

And bottles didn't just fall off the shelves. The rolling ground launched bottles like missiles. Some bottles were found 15 feet from where they'd sat before the 6.8 temblor struck.

Esquin is on Fourth Avenue in SODO — south of downtown — a flat, silty area that was particularly hard hit by the quake.

LeFevre closed the store for three days, two to clean up the sea of wine and broken glass and another to inventory what was and wasn't lost. By the Saturday after the quake, he was open and welcomed a flood of customers.

LeFevre feels fortunate in many ways.

First, he has good insurance, so most of his more than $50,000 in lost wine was covered. Many neighboring businesses didn't have earthquake insurance, but LeFevre figured it would be a good idea for him and his precious inventory.

Second, another part of Esquin's business is its wine storage lockers in the warehouse area of his building. Fortunately, just five bottles were lost. That area of the building was built with earthquakes in mind, thus limiting the damage.

And finally, while many nearby buildings were "red tagged," meaning they couldn't be occupied, Esquin's was "yellow tagged," which means it could keep operating. LeFevre said he could have been out of business otherwise.

• Comments
• Add Comment
• Disclaimer