Branching Out

Pulling into the parking lot of Haskell’s, the incongruity

is in-escapable. This highbrow haven, a hangout for lovers of the liquid grape,

is tucked between a funeral home, a pawnshop and a car audio shop throbbing

with a beat reminiscent of a hangover. Haskell’s, however, is not for the

guzzlers among us. The wine and spirits retailer dedicates itself to wine

connoisseurs and wannabes. Well-known to Minneapolis residents and

well-traveled oenophiles, Haskell’s now is trying to emulate that success in

Naples with year-round wine storage and cooking classes featuring top-notch

chefs in addition to its expansive wine selection.

The Naples store, which opened in December 2000, is the

company’s only location outside Minnesota. Haskell’s owner John Farrell, who

has had a winter home in Naples for years, says the decision to set up shop in

Naples resulted from the gentle nudging of friends. “My friends knew Haskell’s

from up north and when they came here they wanted the same service,” he says.

“They kept telling me, ‘Open up a wine shop down here.’”

Haskell’s has built a reputation as one of the nation’s

finest wine and spirits retailers, with five stores in the

Twin Cities area plus the Naples shop. Bon Appétit rated it

as one of America’s top wine stores. Wine and Spirits magazine listed Haskell’s

as one of the top 10 retailers in the United States. Esquire called the wine

shop “the finest between the two coasts.” For more than 60 years, Haskell’s

Minnesota operation has provided wine to the White House, the U.S. State

Department and the governments of Germany, France, Italy and Spain. When

then-Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, visited Minnesota

in 1990, Haskell’s coordinated all the wine and food.

Farrell didn’t have a tough time deciding the affluent

Naples area was a natural fit. Finding the ideal retail space was more difficult.

Today, the Haskell’s name resides on a salmon-pink stucco building on busy Pine

Ridge Road. The exterior features black wrought iron window grates. Bulky,

carved wood trims the entry. Blue tiles surround a fountain, a relic of an

earlier time, with not a drop of water in sight. Haskell’s inherited the

architecture from a Mexican pottery and crafts store that formerly inhabited

the site. “Before that I think it was a dog kennel,” Farrell laughs.

The problem was converting the existing building to an upscale

wine shop. “The mezzanine was the biggest challenge. At first we couldn’t

decide what to do with it,” says Farrell. The front mezzanine section became

the cooking school with a kitchen and dining area. The back section became

offices, accessed via a narrow, wrought iron spiral staircase with terra cotta

tiles. Like a proud father, Farrell says, “Some [of our stores] in Minneapolis

are bigger but I think the Naples store is the nicest.”

Haskell’s stocks more than 6,000 wines and spirits from more

than 20 countries. Its shelves boast a litany of the world’s finest wine

labels, covering France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Australia, California, Canada,

Portugal, New Zealand and even Tasmania. Though Haskell’s advertises in

newspapers and local publications, most of its marketing is direct mail

announcing sales and customer events. Haskell’s also publishes a massive annual

wine catalog for major customers and a smaller version for general use.

Although the company expected to weather an off-season

slowdown, management has been pleasantly surprised. “Naples is growing at such

a rapid rate that we’re becoming less dependent on the season,” says K.C.

Boudrie, the general manager in Naples. The company will not release store

sales figures or annual revenue.

Michael D’Alessandro, a director of the Naples Winter Wine

Festival, held in early February, says there are enough wine lovers in the area

to patronize a number of shops. “Naples is an outstanding fine wine market, not

at all saturated, so there are opportunities for growth,” he says.

Haskell’s positions itself as a “wine store for everyone,”

with bottles starting at $3.99. That said, shoppers might want to double-check

the decimal point carefully before heading for the checkout line. The $399 (and

up) bottles are offered, too.

A locked grate leads to Haskell’s special stock, the crème

de la crème of wines. One bottle, for example, costs more than a small car. A

5-liter bottle of 1989 Chateau d’Yquem, from Farrell’s personal stock, is

destined for the Naples Winter Wine Festival, where it’s expected to bring in

$15,000.

Farrell was not always a wine devotee. He got into the wine

business the same way he entered the Naples market, through personal influence.

When he was first married, his wife would want to try different wines with food

after watching Julia Child match up food with wine on her TV show. She must

have wanted a lot of wine because her husband bought a store full of it in

1970.

Fritzi and Benny Haskell started Haskell’s in 1934 soon

after the repeal of Prohibition. In 1935, they were the first retailers to

bring a cargo container of wine from Europe. When Farrell purchased the

downtown Minneapolis store in 1970, the wine business was starting to explode,

he says.

Understanding that educating Southwest Florida residents

about wine will lead to business success, Haskell’s emphasizes the marriage of

wine with its traditional partner—food. An on-site cooking school hosts

visiting chefs ranging from Italian cookbook author Marcella Hazan to local

chefs from The Ritz-Carlton and upscale area restaurants. Boudrie says the

interest in the classes, typically held once a month, has been overwhelming and

he’d like to increase the frequency.

In developing a business plan for an area with a climate

that could turn the best Bordeaux to vinegar faster than even a wino could

drink it, Haskell’s knew it had to make room for wine storage. Haskell’s

solution is its “cellar,” a climate-controlled, 5,000-square-foot space be-hind

the retail area. (An additional 2,500 square feet of storage is available in an

off-premise building.) Within the cellar, the temperature is a cool 55 degrees

and the woodsy aroma of the pine lockers fills the air. The ceiling, made from

foam insulation that’s blown in for refrigeration, looks like giant toasted

marshmallows lumped together. Originally a dropped ceiling was planned, but the

lumps resembled, in a very rough way, rock formations. So the ceiling was

painted a terra cotta color instead. Kitsch, but it works.

All 40 lockers, rented for $30 a month, are already taken,

and more are being built. Haskell’s provides free pickup and delivery of the

stored wine, including as little as one bottle. Wine storage is fast becoming a

growing trend, and another local business, Olde Naples Self Storage, is trying

to fill the niche, too. “It’s popular, especially with people who leave in the

summer. Even if they have a refrigerated unit at home for their wine, they

might be concerned that the power would go off and they wouldn’t know it,”

Boudrie says.

And sales are heating up, with customers citing Haskell’s

reputation and service. “Because of Minneapolis, they have great access to

hard-to-get wines,” says Dr. Desmond Hussey, a frequent Haskell’s shopper.

“They go out of their way to accommodate you. We’ve had a lot of fun with it

and they helped me learn what we like and don’t like.”