We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dawn Maire a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dawn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I hope to help create a legacy of balance and normalcy for not ALWAYS drinking alcohol. Alcohol is the only drug that if you reduce your in-take, people question you about it.

I want to help create an environment where there are choices other than alcohol for socializing, dining, hosting and celebrating. My dream scenario is that my daughter and granddaughter drink less than my generation.

Dawn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a previous advertising executive and lifelong wine lover and foodie turned winemaker. I was at a stage of my life where I needed a break from alcohol. I tried every non-alcoholic wine on the market and I didn’t find any that I liked so I decided to create my own. Tapping into a lifetime of cooking, I created the original wine formulas in my kitchen using herbs from my garden. It was important that the wine I made was delicious on its own ( no need to mix) paired week with food and provided the consumer with an authentic wine experience. It was also important that I didn’t trade alcohol for calories.. to the end we used botanicals and herbs in place of sugar and concentrates to create a lux full bodied wine with no/low calories, carbs or sugars. Starla is an unapologetically female forward wine brand. Wine is the go to beverage for women and I wanted to create a product that spoke to what women want.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Learning and building the supply chain to manufacture the wine was one of our biggest hurdles to overcome. Creating Non-alcoholic wine has similar processes to wine with alcohol, but the protocols are different, I learned early on that creating the wine would mean that I along with the bottlers and wine makers would be learning together. Most of the bottlers and wine makers who could support a smaller start-up didn’t create any products in the non-alch space, so I met with countless partners to find a solution. The wine category is a VERY traditional space and our use of botanicals and herbs were new to every winemaker we spoke to. Our first bottling was a disaster! The product was handled and blended incorrectly and was ruined. Literally 1000s of gallons of wine had to be poured down the drain. We eventually got it right via trail and error and the right partner.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

As a marketer and advertiser I have always focused on the consumer. We set out to create a product for female wine lovers who chose to or cannot drink wine with alcohol. Every bit of the consumer experience: packaging, labeling, shipping materials, the varietals, the floral nose of the varietals and of course, our amazing branding was focused on our female consumer. We wanted to create something that created excitement for the category and for the product. It was important that we celebrated her and her choices. Of course we love our male customers too!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.starlawines.com
• Instagram: @starlawines
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=starla%20alcohol%20removed%20wines
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/68133720/admin/
• Other: www.foodieworthy.com ( my food blog)

Image Credits
Shayna Fontana www.shaynafontana.com 773.556.3080