Seeing “Champagne Jane” Stoller holding a flute of her signature dealcoholized sparkling wine, it’s hard to believe she used to spend her days in steel-toed boots. It wasn’t that long ago, after all, that Stoller used to oversee operations at cement plants.
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But today, the Whistler-based CEO and co-founder of Glimmer Wine, the fast-growing non-alc sparkling wine brand, has traded the grit of construction sites for the world of consumer brands, and is taking it by storm.
Within months of the official launch in October 2024 with co-founders Marina Billinghurst and Janet Helou, retailers were reordering and demand was accelerating. The company’s dealcoholized chardonnay is now already carried in 250 locations across B.C. (including top restaurants like Vancouver’s Maenam and Elisa and Whistler’s Wild Blue, to name a few) and expanding across Canada, as well as a number of wineries that want to offer a non-alc option to patrons.
To help scale the next phase of growth, Stoller recently closed a two-week, $500,000 funding round that will allow her to expand production runs, lower costs and bring in consumer packaged goods expertise. “It went really fast. People see the trajectory,” she says. Single-serve cans are on the horizon, as is international shipping.
The idea for Glimmer sparked around 2020, when Stoller began noticing a cultural shift: she and her friends were drinking less but still wanted the ritual and sophistication of wine or champagne. (“I saw the opportunity,” she says.)
Stoller’s background in operations and business strategy helped prepare her for entrepreneurship. She spent more than a decade in construction materials, managing major concrete plant and pipe operations in Vancouver and Edmonton before moving to Switzerland to consult on global plant operations. “I loved the work,” Stoller says. “But I always knew I would eventually build my own business.”
Her ambition now is to make Glimmer a household name. “We want Glimmer to be the bottle people reach for when they want to celebrate,” Stoller says. “Whether there’s alcohol in it or not.”
What was your first job?
Working on her family’s dairy farm, feeding the baby calves twice a day.
What is a misconception about your industry?
That non-alcoholic wine is just grape juice. “The good ones are made with real wine and a lot of science.”
What is your go-to reset ritual?
Reorganizing her closet.
