Not Yet Named Wine Co. began in August 2022, when two students went to Soalheiro in northern Portugal to make their first commercial wine. Alex Brogan and Manuel Cerdeira were a year into studying winemaking at Plumpton College. Manuel's father, Luis Cerdeira, gave them the run of the family winery for the vintage.
The club sold its first wine before it existed. Members paid for six bottles of something two students had never made, and in return they were given the decisions: the vineyard, the picking date, the yeast, the blend, the bottle, the label, the name. Nineteen ballots in all. The wine that came out of them is called Soul Hero, a name the members chose, on a label that carries theirs.
“Thanks to all the members who backed two student winemakers who had never made wine commercially, buying six bottles without a clue what it would end up being. We wouldn't be here today without your blind faith.”
A democrat and a dictator
Each vintage makes two wines. One is decided by ballot from vineyard to bottle. The other, called the Edition, or the Dictator inside the club, is the winemaker's own. Members buy both and taste them side by side. It gives the votes their meaning, and the winemaker a wine of his own each year.
Ten vintages have been made this way, with ten producers: Soalheiro in Portugal, La Despensa in Chile, Darcie Kent in California, AA Badenhorst in South Africa, Rodica in Slovenia, Unico Zelo in Australia, Gian Luca Colombo in Piedmont, Karim Mussi in Mendoza, Kostaki on Samos and El Reventón in Gredos. A Barolo from Castiglione Falletto, the club's first Icon, is in barrel.
What the voting looks like
284 members have cast 5,249 votes across 125 ballots. A single decision can draw 85 of them. The votes are tied to the work: when members chose between a still and a sparkling wine for the Samos vintage, the ballot closed on a Wednesday because the glass order went in the following week.
The results stand even when the house loses. For the Argentina white, Alex put his own blend up against one assembled by Amanda Barnes, a Master of Wine. The members preferred hers. Hers is the one being bottled.
Assemble's part
Assemble built and runs the platform underneath all of this: the ballots, the reveals, the notes and films that go out with each vote, the message boards, the shop. The club's winemaker and Assemble's founder are brothers, which is how the work began. New tools are tried with the club before any client sees them.