Why we moved from MyOwnSomm.com to MyNextWine

I’ve been meaning to write this for a while because from the outside it probably just looked like we changed the name and kept going.

But it was a bit more than that.

We started with MyOwnSomm.com because at the time the idea made sense to us. Wouldn’t it be handy to have your own sommelier in your pocket helping you pick wine?

On paper, it sounded good.

And to be fair, maybe there was something in it. Maybe there still is. I’m not here acting like it was a stupid idea and now suddenly we’ve cracked it. That’s not really how any of this works.

But the more we worked on it, the more we felt that most people do not want “their own somm”.

They just want a nice bottle of wine.

That’s really it.

They don’t want a lesson.
They don’t want jargon.
They don’t want to feel awkward standing in a shop looking at labels they don’t understand.
And they definitely do not want another subscription unless it’s giving them something they really, really want.

That became clearer the more we looked at it.

The problem with MyOwnSomm

To be honest, MyOwnSomm was probably a bit too clever for its own good.

Some people didn’t know what “somm” meant.
Some did, but still didn’t really know what the site actually was.
And even when you explained it, it could still feel a bit too winey, a bit too insider-ish, a bit too much like it was for people already into that world.

That’s not really who we want to build for.

We want to build for normal people who just want help picking wine without having to make a whole thing of it.

And the more we talked about it, the more obvious it became that people weren’t saying, “I wish I had my own digital sommelier.”

They were saying:

What should I get?
What will I actually like?
What’s a safe bet?
What should I try next?

That’s much simpler. And probably more honest.

People want wine, not another subscription

This was a big part of it too.

There’s a lot in this space built around the idea that people want to subscribe to a wine experience. Monthly boxes, memberships, clubs, curated journeys, all the rest.

And maybe some people do.

But I think a lot more people are just tired of subscriptions in general. Everyone already has enough stuff quietly taking money out of their account every month. They’re not desperate to add another one just to sort out wine.

Most people just want help finding something decent.

Not a commitment.
Not a membership.
Not a big onboarding flow.
Just something useful.

That doesn’t mean we’re definitely right, by the way. We could still be wrong. We’re still figuring it out like everyone else. But this feels closer to what people actually want.

Why MyNextWine felt better

At a certain point it just started to feel obvious that MyNextWine was closer to the real job.

Not “be your own somm”.
Not “unlock wine expertise”.
Just help people find their next wine.

It’s simpler.
It’s clearer.
It says what it does.

That doesn’t automatically mean it’ll work. A better name doesn’t solve everything. But it removes friction, and right now that feels important.

With MyOwnSomm, people had to stop and decode it.
With MyNextWine, they mostly don’t.

That alone felt like a step in the right direction.

We’re not pretending this is some genius move

This isn’t one of those posts where we say we pivoted and now everything is crystal clear and the future is sorted.

It might work.
It might not.
We still have loads to learn.

But it feels more grounded in what people actually want, and less tied to an idea that sounded good to us because we were too close to it.

That’s really the truth of it.

This change wasn’t about us suddenly becoming certain. It was more about us becoming a bit less attached to our own framing and a bit more open to what the product actually seems to be.

And right now, it seems to be this:

People want help picking wine.
In a normal way.
Without fuss.
Without nonsense.
Without another subscription hanging over them.

That feels worth leaning into.

What didn’t change

The main thing hasn’t changed.

I still think wine is made way more confusing than it needs to be.
I still think a lot of the wine world is full of unnecessary nonsense.
And I still think most people would love a bit of help choosing wine if it was done in a straightforward, useful way.

That part is the same.

What changed is mostly the way we talk about it, and maybe the way we understand it ourselves.

Why we pivoted

We pivoted because the old name and the old framing started to feel like they were getting in the way.

Simple as that.

MyOwnSomm sounded interesting, but MyNextWine sounds more useful.

Maybe that ends up being the right call, maybe it doesn’t. But it feels like a more honest one.

And at this stage, that’s enough for us to back it.