Are ‘NDA Wines’ a Secret Way to Score Top Napa Bottles at Low Prices?
As the cost of high-end wine continues to climb, people are looking for strategies to score great bottles at lower prices. While many find success scouring auction sites or buying from underrated regions, there’s a new way savvy wine lovers are evading the whopping price tag on their favorite brands, and it bears an intriguing name.
Shoppers might find these bottles listed under the title “NDA wines” on a retail site, which is short for nondisclosure agreement. (Yes, this is a reference to the same type of NDA that people sign to promise to stay tight-lipped about confidential information.) But why would a wine shop have to sign a legal document to sell certain bottles?
Generally, NDA wines are a clandestine way for top winemakers to bottle and sell wines under a separate label. Let’s say an esteemed Napa Valley estate is known for its high-scoring Cabernet Sauvignon that typically sells for around $250. If that same producer has an oversupply or experiences a vintage that doesn’t quite live up to the winemaker’s expectations, they might decide to sell the wine under a different label. That way the winery can sell its less prestigious bottlings at a discount without potentially harming its high-end reputation. And though retailers might know which cult Napa winery is behind the $30 bottle they’re selling, the NDA keeps them from spilling the beans.
Before they were dubbed NDA wines, these bottles were previously known as private label wines, popular in shops like Costco, where well-known brands would allegedly sell under the Kirkland label for a better price. More recently, online retailers like Wine Access have really run with the concept, and Wine Access even has a section of its website dedicated to the category. The wines featured include a $26 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from a nameless 100-point winemaker and a $45 Sonoma County Cab “from a dramatic Spring Mountain site near the Sonoma County line,” named “Hidden Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon,” playing into the secretive nature of it all. One of the descriptions even boasts about how intense the nondisclosure agreement is: “100pt talent meets Calistoga’s tightest NDA.”
The buzzy new term might help people find better deals on certain wines, but the concept does provoke the question of what consumers truly care about when buying wine. Are people fine buying a nameless wine as long as they know it will probably taste good? Or would consumers prefer to know the full story behind the bottle? And to what extent do Napa Cab lovers gravitate toward those wines for the prestige plastered on the front label?
We’re all for finding a great bang-for-your-buck wine, but it seems like the NDA might put a damper on some dinnertime conversations. If a guest says “Wow! I love this Cab so much, where is it from?” the host would be forced to answer, “We’re not legally allowed to know.”
*Image retrieved from wirojsid via stock.adobe.com
The article Are ‘NDA Wines’ a Secret Way to Score Top Napa Bottles at Low Prices? appeared first on VinePair.