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.