Residential wine cellar holds a whopping 1,500 bottles
A wine cellar often conjures images of a dank, cobweb-strewn chamber set deep within a property’s bowels. But custom residential wine cellars — warmly handsome with refrigerated cabinets — are changing that view.
We were surprised, however, to discover a listing that includes a wine cellar that holds a whopping 1,500 bottles. It’s a home that would make even the most serious of oenophiles jealous.
“This takes it to another level,” Hilton & Hyland co-lister Linda May said. “Someone who is already a wine collector or connoisseur will relate to this space.”
Fifteen refrigerated glass and walnut cabinets wreathe the 300-square-foot wine room, distinguished by a stone fireplace, dining room table and club chairs. The room is set within a $10.8-million Beverly Hills Tuscan-style villa with a tennis court.
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“I designed the cellar myself,” said vintner and owner Rich Frank, former president of Walt Disney Studios and former chairman of Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications.
Frank bought the 1935 property a decade ago and added the wine cellar while also renovating other areas. (The home was also extensively remodeled in 2000.) The seven-bedroom, nine-and-a-half-bathroom estate sits on 3 acres.
“We’ve had large dinners in the dining room and gigantic parties out back by the pool, but the wine room is perfect for small gatherings,” said Frank, who hired a woodworker to custom-build the cabinets.
The room is accessed through a door off the circular motor court (“sort of like a speakeasy door,” May said) that leads to a winding staircase clad with rough-hewn limestone walls. At the bottom, the wine room repeats the limestone theme on walls and on the fireplace.
A second entry leads from the lower level’s media room through a barrel-ceiling hallway. A small bar and kitchen are adjacent.
“The wine room is a place to retreat to,” said wife Leslie Frank, a former KABC reporter. “Any time we entertain there, we run the risk that our guests will never want to leave.”
Her husband keeps the cabinets at 55 degrees with less than 50% humidity. “If you don’t do that, the labels will start turning up at the corners,” he said.
The couple is moving after “dialing back our careers to focus on the wine business,” Leslie Frank said. They own Calistoga-based Frank Family Vineyards, which comprises about 400 acres spread across Napa Valley.
Her husband became a vintner after making a low bid on the foreclosed 1884 Larkmead winery in 1992.
“I got a call the next day: ‘Congratulations, you’ve won a winery,’” he said. His enterprise now produces 75,000 to 100,000 cases of wine each year.
The Franks said they will miss the home’s views the most. The 10,116-square-foot house faces north, flooding it with boreal light, some bounced from a pool edged with cypress and Italian stone pine.
Oversized front doors open to a vaulted living room ceiling that peaks at 18 feet. Pecan floors are found throughout the residence that has eight fireplaces. The master wing features separate his-and-hers bathrooms and walk-in closets. There are also two en-suite guestrooms.
“With our separate closets and bathrooms, we’re never in each other’s face when getting ready,” Leslie Frank said.
The couple also owns a home in Rutherford surrounded by the Winston Hill Vineyards that edge the Vaca Mountains in Napa Valley.
The listing is held by Linda May of Hilton & Hyland, and the Agency’s Jen Winston and Mauricio Umansky.
