Remember that little thing called “The Great Recession” that was in full swing in 2009? Well, it made a lot of us want to drink copious amounts of wine (recessions and horses will do that). With the economy in the proverbial tank, many aficionados felt the need to cut down on this so-called “discretionary spending” at a time when a bit of indulgence was needed most. This led entrepreneur and wine-enthusiast, Kevin Mehra, to develop Ninety+ Cellars.
Since the demand for wine with price tags greater than twenty dollars had plummeted, many highly rated wineries found themselves sitting on an abundance of inventory. Rather than discount their vintages — which would inevitably lead to the degradation of their brands — many of them decided to sell extra stock to Mr. Mehra to be bottled under his Ninety+ Cellars label. In turn, Ninety+ Cellars sold these bottles below that magical twenty-dollar demarcation line, thus allowing producers to secretly unload extra supply without affecting future demand.
Why do you care? Because any bottle that you purchase with a Ninety+ Cellars label is filled with a highly regarded wine that is effectively in the witness protection program. Rather than give pseudonyms to these vintages, Ninety+ gives them lot numbers, and — barring a WikiLeaks scandal — you’ll never know their real identities. However, each vintage is exactly as it would have been from the original winery, with a different sticker on the front (and a price to match). Therefore the purchase of a Ninety+ wine is not a crapshoot, and the bottle won’t be filled with a random blend of Oregon pinot noirs and California cabernets (sidenote: we particularly enjoy the currently discounted Lot 28 pinot noir, which comes from the same Willamette Valley* winery year after year).
Of course the economy has progressed some since the Ninety+ Cellars inception in 2009, but the premise remains the same. Most of the wines are still priced below twenty dollars (many coming in closer to ten), which means that you can drown your sorrows in a bear market, or toast to your successes in a bullish one! And for a limited time you can get 15% off two of their newest reserves here.
*It’s Willamette (will-AM-it), damnit!
