I’m biased against two things: prosecco and non-alcoholic wine.
Not because I think either shouldn’t exist; I just think they're categories that too often promise more than they can actually deliver. Cheap prosecco in particular, as wine writer Ruth Spivey so beautifully puts it, is like Temu furniture: it looks convincing enough until you spend a bit of time with it, and then everything starts to fall apart.
With this in mind, I approached Heaps Normal's first foray into wine - High Hopes Non-Alcoholic Prosecco - with expectations set somewhere between politely interested and staunchly pessimistic. My first thought certainly wasn't “finally”; it was “good luck”. Wine, after all, has always proved a far tougher nut to crack than beer.
RELATED: Heaps Normal’s New Health Club Is The Next Phase Of Its Clear-Headed Revolution
The problem is that between removing the alcohol and trying to replace it, many producers seem to forget they're still making something people actually have to enjoy drinking. As a result, much too often you're left with sugary grape juice wearing a wine bottle as a costume.
To be fair to those who have gone before, creating balance in non-alcoholic wine is incredibly hard. Ethanol brings body and texture, so once you remove it, something has to give.
Which is precisely the point at which High Hopes surprised me. Because the first thing I noticed was how remarkably balanced it is; not only does it actually taste like something made from grapes (rather than something flavoured to remind you of them), there’s fresh apple, melon and generous lashings of lemon, with enough acidity to keep everything feeling crisp rather than confectionary. Crucially, it finishes dry.
That shouldn't be remarkable, but in the world of cloyingly sweet non-alcoholic wine it certainly is.
It's admittedly a touch lean through the palate, although that's hardly unexpected (as we learnt, ethanol equals body and texture). For me, the effervescence also felt a little closer to cider or beer, but the bubbles held their own far longer than many inexpensive glasses of traditional sparkling.
The thing that impressed me most wasn't necessarily the final product, but the seriousness behind it. Wine is a category built on craft, patience, and obsessive attention to detail. Removing the alcohol doesn't remove the responsibility to respect the liquid. If anything, it makes it matter more.
The team at Heaps Normal spent 18 months developing High Hopes, working through countless iterations, two tonnes of grapes, and a research partnership with the Australian Wine Research Institute before arriving at a bottle they were willing to put their name behind. For a category that has often felt like an afterthought, that level of care deserves genuine credit.
Of course, the future of non-alcoholic drinks was never about convincing everyone they were drinking the "real thing". What people actually want is something far simpler: a thoughtfully crafted drink they can bring to a dinner party, hold at a wedding, or pour into a nice glass without feeling like they've been handed the sad alternative.
High Hopes delivers on that brief. It looks the part, behaves like a sparkling wine and (crucially) doesn't feel like a punishment for choosing not to drink.
Has it converted me to non-alcoholic sparkling? Unfortunately, no. If I were handed a choice between this and a bottle of Champagne, I know where I'd be heading. But that's also not really the point.
Would I drink this over plenty of supermarket Proseccos? Absolutely. And given the cost of entry, even if you don't love it, you haven't exactly lost much by giving it a try.