Hall Wines purchases base isolators for future seismic protection

In 2014, an earthquake on the West Napa Fault resulted in more than $300 million of damage (based on estimations), much of which was sustained by the region’s 500 winemakers.

In the aftermath of the 6.0 magnitude earthquake, one of the winemakers—Hall Wines—knew it needed additional seismic protection, primarily as a means to safeguard its inventory of valuable and irreplaceable vintage wines. So, it opted to install base isolators.

“We felt the investment in the isolators provided an extra level of protection for our valuable wines, making it an easy decision,” says Gary Cisneros, shipping and inventory manager at Hall Wines.

Hall Wines’ warehouse stocks cases of bottled wines, and serves as its short- and long-term storage facility. From this facility, Cisneros’ team packs its direct-to-consumer Wine Club orders on a daily basis and stocks an inventory of the winemaker’s library wines on the pallet rack, possibly for years.

The warehouse now includes more than 500 pallet positions of tear drop pallet racks, provided by a pallet rack storage manufacturer, along with nearly 100 base isolators that are installed with upright frames.

“From an operational point of view, the isolators are a great solution, as they’re almost undetectable fitting neatly under the rack’s upright frames, and don’t interfere with our lift trucks moving in and around the rack,” Cisneros adds.