Can Heaps Normal Make a Non-Alc Wine We Want To Drink All the Time?

You’ve probably heard the news by now. Young people don’t drink nearly as much as their parents. More and more people are moderating their alcohol intake. Whether you’ve noticed or not, the numbers don’t lie.

One Australian brand saw the writing on the wall early, and in five short years, Heaps Normal’s Quiet XPA has become ubiquitous in bottle shops, on restaurant menus and in bar fridges around the country. Meanwhile, the brand went from a startup to a $60 million company, and now has plans to expand heavily into the US and UK with local manufacturing capabilities.

At around 50 per cent, non-alc beer still has the biggest slice of the non-alc drinks market. Australia is the second biggest international market for low-alcohol wines and is expected to see some modest growth over the next two years. Cue the raft of small producers such as Zero Hour, as well as legacy labels including De Bortoli and Brown Brothers, getting in on the action.

Still, the non-alc wine category remains a tough nut to crack, with flavour and perception (is non-alcoholic wine even wine?) among the major hurdles for producers to clear. Therein lay the challenge for Heaps Normal when making High Hopes Prosecco, the brand’s first foray into the world of wine.

“The first few months of thinking about making a non-alc wine involved tasting a lot of the products out there,” says Ben Holdstock, Heaps Normal’s co-founder and head brewer. “It reminded me of tasting non-alc beers six years ago. Not to run anyone down, but they just felt like an afterthought. Really acidic, really sweet, not very drinkable.

“We just want to make products that people actually want to drink. That sounds basic, but it’s the truth. So we set out to make a genuine wine, with 100 per cent grapes and winemaking practices. Not a fabricated RTD designed to resemble wine.”

To that end, Holdstock and Heaps Normal’s head of wine, Ned Brooks, worked with the Australian Wine Research Institute – the Australian grape and wine industry’s dedicated research organisation – to develop a winemaking process that differs from standard industry practices.

Winemakers usually de-alcoholise wine through the application of heat, pressure or a combination of both to remove ethanol from a base wine while preserving the flavours, aroma and acidity. But removing alcohol can also impact mouthfeel, sweetness and body weight, so winemakers will usually add grape concentrate and often artificial thickeners in a final blending stage to compensate.

“I thought, surely there must be a way that we can compensate without going down that route,” says Brooks, who comes from a minimal-intervention winemaking background.

The answer was to make two distinct wines in order to make one.

Holdstock and Brooks sourced Prosecco grapes exclusively from Freeman Vineyards near Young in Central NSW, and made a “standard table wine” base. The alcohol was then removed via vacuum distillation – a common method where wine is placed in a vacuum chamber to lower the boiling point, allowing alcohol to evaporate at gentle temperatures without damaging the wine’s natural aromas and flavours.

A second wine was then crafted using a specialised yeast which accentuates aroma, flavour, and texture, with the fermentation process halted early to leave behind residual sugars. Around 12 per cent of this wine is blended with the de-alcoholised base – a method the researchers at the AWRI hadn’t seen before.

“They said it was the best product that’s ever come out of their facility,” says Brooks. “And it took a beer company to figure it out.”

It’s certainly true to the style: bright, crisp, and with a palate of apples, pears, lemon blossom and jasmine flower. It’s not unlike a very smashable cider, and wouldn’t go astray as a mixer in a spritz. Brooks says it was also designed with food in mind – from shaved parma ham to oysters and fish’n’chips when summer rolls around.

Brooks says the “Barbara Kruger meets Aussie punk” labelling was inspired partly by the design aesthetic of Italy’s The Memphis Group. The name High Hopes is indebted to a song by influential New York hardcore band Gorilla Biscuits. “It’s about staying optimistic and keeping your spirits up in the face of trials or bad luck.”

Heaps Normal will bring that energy to the launch of High Hopes at the brand’s HQ in Marrickville on Friday August 7, with live music from local rock acts Meow Meow and the Smackouts, Saturn’s Angel and Triptychs. You can also bring an object that symbolises something negative in your life and smash it to smithereens in the custom smash room.

High Hopes is available at Heaps Normal Health Club in Sydney and selected retailers and venues around the country. RRP $23 (750 millilitres).