As prices of wine skyrocket, some consumers are looking for a new type of wine, “NDA wines.” (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Thursday about the rising trend of “NDA wines,” or private-label wines from prestigious producers selling off excess juice at a fraction of the cost.
The reason NDA wines have their name stems from the fact that a lot of these higher-tier producers selling off their juice don’t want consumers to know since the wine is being sold for a fraction of the typical price. These wineries make sellers sign an NDA, ensuring that they will never reveal where the wine came from. These NDA wines are effectively private-label wines.
Though the concept of a private-label wine is nothing new — just look at any bottle of Two Buck Chuck — as prices rise, consumers are looking to save wherever they can. Thanks to this new, provocative monicker, the spotlight is once again on these super secret wines.
“You hear ‘NDA wine,’ and it immediately triggers that this is secret, this is an insiders club of being in the know,” Sommelier Amanda McCrossin said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “It was one of those terms that people could immediately understand.”
The outlet referred to one particular bottler, Wine Access. The company likes to bottle these ultra-secret NDA wines under names like “Delightful and Strange” and “Yesterday.” For the descriptions, the retailer leans into secrecy.
“The winemaker behind the 2022 Delightful and Strange is so famous among lovers of Napa’s grandest reds that he’s very hard to describe without violating the terms of our NDA,” a description read.
The outlet reported that Wine Access claimed the winemaker produced bold Napa cabernet that typically fetches triple-digit prices.
Yet why all the secrecy?
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that “conventional wisdom” in Napa claims that “discounting wines is lethal to a brand’s image.” As to why wineries might want to sell off some excess juice?
Sometimes, the vino isn’t up to par for the Napa producer, or the winery may have an excess of wine it believes it can’t move through.
As to the agreements within the NDAs, The Chronicle reports that some wineries won’t allow bottlers to list off the regions where the wine is made. If they do, retailers are fairly sure that wine will sell pretty quickly.
“If you can get a single-AVA Oakville, Rutherford, Howell Mountain and you’re selling it for $30-$35, it’s just unheard of,” CEO of Wine Access Joe Fisch said to the outlet.
There’s no secret as to why the demand for NDAs is skyrocketing. As inflation continues to soar sky-high, regular consumers who are struggling to make ends meet aren’t exactly going to shell out hundreds of dollars for a Napa Cabernet.
The Chronicle claimed customers might even consider it “a form of soft revenge” to purchase these wines from an industry that often appears to keep people out due to the high prices.
“People are finding it harder to justify the prices of these wines,” McCrossin concluded.