Happy Sipping

Huntington Resident Yalda Paydar Launched No Alcohol Company, Offering a Line of Alcohol-Free Wines

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Imagine a dinner party with friends, a drink in hand. You have work early the next day, but there’s no fear of a hangover, sluggishness, not feeling well—or, in some cases, saying something regretful.

Why? Because you’ve been sipping on wine by No Alcohol Company—launched by Huntington resident Yalda Paydar in January.

Founder and CEO Paydar launched the brand during a time of “healing her mental, emotional and physical health,” read the NoAlchCo website. She originally “set out to create her favorite beverage without the drawbacks.”

“I’m actually an attorney by trade,” Paydar explained to the Palisadian-Post. “I went to law school in New York.”

She moved out to Los Angeles after law school with the man who would become her husband, as he was from Malibu. They originally lived in Marquez Knolls before moving to the Huntington about a year ago.

“We moved here and I liked it, but now that I know LA better, I can’t imagine living somewhere else,” Paydar said of the Palisades.

Paydar continued to practice law for three years before burning out around 2021.

“I went back and forth about, ‘Oh, should I keep doing this? Maybe I just need a break,’” she recalled. “So, I quit. Then when I took this break, I started thinking, and I did some therapy and I was doing a lot of self-reflection.”

She thought back to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic: “A lot of people started to drink more.” Paydar said that she loves wine, it has always been her “drink of choice.”

“I wasn’t doing anything crazy,” she described, “but every night at like 5 or something, I’d be like, ‘Oh, [time for] my glass of wine now’ … and then I’d have like two more with dinner. Over time, I was just like, ‘I’m getting really slow.’”

One day, Paydar thought about how amazing it would be to have her rosé without the alcohol in it—and then, after sharing that thought, people told her it would be “such a great idea” and that “no one’s done this before.”

Paydar began her research at the end of December 2022 and found that while people have, in fact, started to do this, it’s still a “very fresh industry in terms of the wine component.”

Data shows that Americans are drinking less: According to a Gallup report that was published in Wired, 65% of American adults drank alcohol in 2019. By 2021, that number went down to 60%. The number of alcoholic drinks consumed per week also went down from four in 2019 to 3.6 in 2021.

Paydar found during her research that there were options for mocktails, capturing the “ready-to-drink section of the industry.”

“So I decided to go down this route,” Paydar said about embarking on her journey with alcohol-free wine. “I told myself—because I’m not from the beverage industry—to just do one thing at a time and see how far you get … and then I did it, did it, did it and then I ended up making a product.”

She spent all of 2023 working on getting NoAlchCo launched, creating a drink that is designed to be “flavorful, aromatic and sophisticated … without the headaches,” according to the website.

In addition to no alcohol, the wine has no added sugars or artificial flavors. It is made from 100% Californian grapes, which are fermented as “traditional” wine.

“Each varietal goes through a method of vacuum distillation called Spinning Cone Column Technology,” according to information shared by Paydar. “This technology allows for the extraction of alcohol by using alternating rotating cones that spread out the wine to a thin film to produce the desired result—removal of alcohol while maintaining the balance and complexity of each wine varietal.”

Paydar said there is “one real company” that does the removal process. She purchases wine from a winery and sends it to them to remove the alcohol. She said that reds are the most difficult to create, as the “gusto” is hard to recapture once the alcohol has been removed.

Then, NoAlchCo reintroduces some of the original natural flavors and aromas that are associated with each varietal, avoiding sugar and using only natural flavors to “maintain the integrity of the wine varietal.”

Paydar recognized that alcohol brings people together, both during moments of celebration and as a “peaceful place” after a long day of work.

“However, we also recognize the ways in which alcohol can actually hinder the very joy and peace we seek to gain from it,” the NoAlchCo website read. “Our decision to create an alcohol-removed wine was not about denouncing a beloved ritual; but about honoring the ever-evolving relationship we have with it.”

Paydar said that she expected mostly sober people to be interested in the product, but that she has found that “a lot of people who still drink” are “trying to be a little bit more mindful.” She said that whatever a person’s reason for not drinking alcohol—whether it is for health or beyond—they have been “very excited” because “they want to be a part of the social gathering that alcohol, like having a cocktail or drink, brings,” and they “always felt left out.”

“Before, there was water,” Paydar said. “Now they have something else that they can enjoy and try, so the reception has been really great.”

NoAlchCo’s current lineup includes alcohol-removed Sauvignon Blanc (“a dry, crisp and mineral finish with hints of apricot and jasmine”), Chardonnay (“an oaky, smooth and round finish with hints of peach and orange blossom”), Rosé (“crisp, mineral and refreshing finish with hints of rose and strawberry”) and Cabernet Sauvignon (“a round, smooth finish with hints of black pepper, chocolate and blueberry”). For those who want to try all four varietals, NoAlchCo also offers a quartet pack.

In addition to achieving her goal of bringing an alcohol-free wine to fruition, Paydar said an added benefit of pursuing NoAlchCo is that it allowed her “branch out into” her “creative zone.”

“Being an attorney is … creative in some ways, in terms of your writing that you get to write maybe more creatively,” Paydar explained, “but there’s definitely things that you have to do and a way to do them.”

Paydar said she got to explore her creative side when it came to things like designing labels and picking what she wanted on the website.

“Before this, I never considered myself a creative person,” Paydar said. “Then when I started doing this, I said, ‘Oh, I am creative, it just was hiding.’”

While alcohol-removed drinks are a relatively “new industry topic,” Paydar said, she has noticed “there’s a lot of women in this space,” which she “really loves.”

“We’re putting passion and emotion into this,” Paydar said. “I think it’s really interesting that the people who are trying to do more innovative things and innovative products in general—natural products, whatever it may be—are all of these females who are tired of the same Oreo that’s been there. I mean, I love an Oreo, but sometimes you want something different.”

Paydar is currently working on expanding the brand to be sold at local stores and served at restaurants, but until then, interested Palisadians can find NoAlchCo wine at its website: noalcoholcompany.com.