90+ Pinot Noir (Lot 179)

90+ Cellars believes that every occasion calls for a great wine. That's the philosophy behind every wine they bottle... Great wines at a great price, so you can enjoy them anytime.

Basically, they're bottling awesome, highly-rated, big-name wine behind their own label at an impressive discount. Instead of wines changing by vintage, 90+ wines are done by a lot number, so once that lot number changes, it's a completely different wine from a different vineyard. Have fun exploring!

Here's their cool story... It all started in the spring of 2009. Armed with a copy of the latest Wine Spectator, founder Kevin Mehra set out on a mission to bring higher quality wine to the market for a better price. He started calling wineries with a history of high ratings to ask if they had wine for sale. Some told him to get lost, but in the end, he found a handful of wineries that liked his concept. The plan was simple: put their wine behind the 90+ label, and sell it for less.

But why would wineries want to do that?

You may recall that the economy wasn’t in the best shape in 2009. Demand for premium and luxury wines had plummeted and inventories were piling up. Rather than discount their wine and erode the value of their brand, we found that wineries were willing to part with a certain percentage of their production for a reduced price.

It was a win/win scenario. Wineries got to sell more wine, and consumers got access to better wine at lower prices.