A federal judge in Sacramento also ordered Mark Anderson to pay $70.3 million to customers who lost their premium collections in the October 2005 blaze.

Anderson, 63, stored the wine for 95 vintners and dozens of private collectors for a fee at the Wine Central warehouse in Vallejo. Prosecutors say he set the fire to cover up the fact that he was embezzling wine for years.

Winemakers from Napa and Sonoma counties stored wine inside the warehouse, a former submarine repair facility. It was thought to be fireproof because of its thick concrete walls and floors.

Among those losses were 450 cases of Chardonnay and 650 cases of Syrah vinted by Rominger West Winery of Davis. The loss represented about 40 percent of the new winery’s debut release, and 100 percent of its bottled wine, all made from Yolo County grapes.

Anderson, who owned a wine storage business named Sausalito Cellars, had been storing some of his wines at Wines Central but removed most of them after being asked to do so by business managers several months before the fire.

The fire caused $250 million in damage and injured two firefighters.

In 2009, Anderson pleaded guilty to 19 counts, including arson, mail fraud and tax evasion. Sentencing was delayed because of his unsuccessful attempt to withdraw the guilty plea.

“Most of the victim wineries were small family-run businesses that housed their complete inventory at Wines Central because they had no storage capacity of their own,” Sacramento U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner said.

“This caused a great deal of financial and emotional distress on those small-business owners and their employees. The sentence today properly reflects that suffering.”