Two Dallas-Born Entrepreneurs Create Starla, an Alcohol-Free Wine

The spread of non-alcoholic beverages – non-alcoholic aperitifs, canned syringes without schnapps, distilled spirits without alcohol – is a booming fraction of the beverage market today. Last year, Alcohol sales increased significantly in the early stages of the pandemic. According to a study published in IM Journal of the American Medical Association, Binge drinking skyrocketed 14 percent overall and 41 percent for women. Alternatively, many other made other lifestyle changes that included reducing or eliminating their alcohol consumption. However, getting sober doesn’t mean giving up on fun. At least that’s true for Dawn Maire and Jaime Coulter, two Dallas natives who founded Starla wines.

“I was alone [one night]to enjoy a delicious meal and drink a really good glass of white wine with it, and that was only possible with wine with alcohol, ”says Maire. “And I’m not an anti-alcohol, but I live mostly sober and wanted something that tastes really good and complements my food, and have the experience that a good glass of wine brings to a meal.”

For people like Maire who longed for the activity of drinking wine – as an addition to a meal, a sip to relax – without the ensuing hangovers or liver effects, palatable options were few. When she set out to reduce the vino, Maire says: “[I] tried every non-alcoholic wine there is [that] I could take my hands in my hand And they were terrible, terrible. ”

Starla Wines is Maire and Coulter’s answer to non-alcoholic wine for meals and parties that tastes really good. The entrepreneurial duo (Coulter recently started their luxury fashion boutique La Vie Style House and Maire previously worked in real estate, advertising, and was even the president of PooPourri) founded Starla after they both began restricting their wine consumption.

“[I] tried every non-alcoholic wine … and they were awful, awful. ”

The Starla team sources grapes from farms across California. The fermentation process is the same process that one would use for any other wine. After fermentation, they remove the alcohol using a cone technology that “basically spins the alcohol,” says Maire. (Starla partnered with BevZero dealcoholization technology group for this process.) Maire insists that using this spinning technology, as opposed to removing the alcohol through heat, allows for the same taste, body, and mouthfeel as a traditional wine. After spinning, each serving contains less than 1 percent alcohol, which is roughly equivalent to the kombucha content. Another plus point? Each one contains only five calories and no carbohydrates.

There are currently three varieties. Sauvignon Blanc contains notes of wild honeysuckle, rosemary, pear and lemon balm, according to Starla’s website. Recommended combinations are “roast pork, green lentils, and video calls”. A red mixture consists of dark cherry, blackberry, bergamot and black pepper flavors. The sparkling rosé promises “dry and light botanicals made from strawberry blossoms, citrus fruits, lychee and minerals”, which are drunk with “creamy risotto, french fries and cravings at 2 am”.

Maire and Coulter wanted to create a product that was “deliberately feminine” to express a sensitivity to a woman’s lifestyle: something fun and festive, but not in clichéd “pink packaging”. The bottles that you can buy online, are minimalist in design and lettered with pastel-colored shapes.

Courtesy of Starla Wines

Courtesy of Starla Wines

Courtesy of Starla Wines

Starla Wines has been in the works since before the pandemic. While you can currently only buy Starla Wines online, Maire and Coulter are hoping to expand and become a household name. But like all wines, good things also need time to mature. You plan to take a slow and steady approach as consumers begin to move towards a more sober lifestyle. “Lots of people start the process [of cutting out alcohol when they’re] younger, ”says Maire. “Good for you. Maybe I’ll be late for the party, but I started it anyway.”

Maire and Coulter said they further stimulated the creative process when they noticed people drinking during quarantine.

“When I heard and saw what was going on in the world, I wanted to turn the script around, and it’s an ingrained script: ‘You’re going to drink alcohol,'” says Maire. “But seeing that people want to change was super motivating for me.”

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