The Little Nell. Photo courtesy of Shawn O’Connor.
The après-ski scene at Chair 9, a 1,450 square-foot bar located in luxury Aspen retreat The Little Nell, is legendary. As soon as lifts close, the DJ-fueled lounge quickly fills to standing-room-only capacity, with guests eager to party with Champagne, large-format wine bottles, and group shots of tequila.
After the pandemic brought the bacchanalia to a screeching halt last March, The Little Nell set out to reinvent Chair 9 into a new concept for ski season 2021. Its new iteration, The Wine Bar, is a reservation-only lounge limited to a fraction of its former capacity, retrofitted with new lighting and Art Deco décor, yet it features the same high-energy, all-vinyl music lineup and DJ. The legacy wine program was augmented with three Wineemotion dispensers, allowing for easy pours of Grand Cru Burgundy and first growth Bordeaux alongside selections from Napa, Ribera del Duero, Tuscany, and even Lebanon.
Photo courtesy of Wine2Wine Business Forum.
In a post-pandemic world, the wine industry will need to look very differently than it does right now, and the 2020 digital edition of the wine2wine Business Forum, presented in collaboration with the wine2wine Exhibition, boldly reimagined this future.
Dubbed “Focus 2020,” the event, streamed on November 23 and 24, addressed how entrepreneurs can tap into new revenue sources and better engage with consumers through a number of presentations spanning sustainability, education, and digital marketing. A major theme throughout the forum was inclusivity, with actionable takeaways on how businesses can become more diverse.
How Inclusivity Can Grow Wine’s Consumer Base