The Liberated Spirit of Wine

Author: Hugo Dos Santos Costa, University of Bordeaux, France

Wine has always been a living substance. A fruit that became a gesture, and a gesture that became tradition. But behind the substance lies what cannot be seen, what is sometimes called the spirit of wine. It is neither a secret nor a mystery, merely what remains when everything else is stripped away.

So what does it mean to free this spirit? Perhaps simply to allow it to exist differently. It is said that some wines retain a soul, even when the alcohol has gone. Where wine is released, it does not disappear; it changes form. It is no longer reserved for a select few palates. It unfolds to welcome all those who wish to taste, to learn and to share. Without imposing, without excluding. It opens itself to those who seek experience rather than intoxication, presence rather than vertigo. And what if, for once, we let wine tell its story in another way?

Thus the journey begins, and the spirit of wine reveals itself through places, hands and lands that give it body and voice. Bordeaux is the first voice, one that still carries the timbre of the past, yet chooses to assert itself differently. Here, everything begins with the land: a foundation of heritage, repeated gestures and know-how passed from one hand to another.

It is within this continuity that new ways of doing things are emerging today.
TIP TOP is a Bordeaux estate exploring dealcoholised wine, combining tradition and innovation. Its dreamlike and bold universe seems made for a wine seeking to reinvent itself without denying what it is. The estate’s technical excellence has even been rewarded with the “Global Low & No Alcohol Wine Master” award, a rare recognition in the world of dealcoholised wine.

The next stage of the journey takes us to a region where the diversity of grape varieties opens up other possibilities. DIVIN NOLOW is an estate that explores the diversity of dealcoholised wine with a refined approach, working with the region’s emblematic grape varieties. Nine wines, nine shades of a single breath. This plurality is not a display, but a way of showing that alcohol-free wine is not a single path. It is a spectrum, a palette, a substance that changes according to the hand that shapes it and the light that passes through it. Here, dealcoholisation is not a removal but a distillation. Everyone can discover it at their own pace, whether through a short tasting or a complete experience.

Then, little by little, the spirit rises, time stretches, and wine takes flight towards new horizons. After Bordeaux and the Loire, Vinoh opens a final door: that of a wine that knows no borders, only encounters. Vinoh is a Brazilian estate that explores dealcoholised wine with boldness and creativity, opening the gaze to different climates, landscapes and cultures. Here, wine is not tasted; it dances. You feel it pulse, almost vibrate, each sip seeming to follow a rhythm. This dance is no exaggeration; it is a temperament. A way of saying that the transformation of wine can also be joyful, radiant and alive. Vinoh broadens not only the map but the imagination. It reminds us that alcohol-free wine is not merely an alternative, but a global movement—an inspiration that circulates and continually reinvents itself.

And when this journey through wine comes to an end, what remains are the gestures that shaped it and the memories it continues to offer. That is why some say wine is a liquid memory. When the alcohol is removed, when only the essential is kept, wine ceases to be merely an inheritance. It becomes an experience. The idea is not to break with tradition, but simply to seek another angle, a new breath. A future in which wine accompanies every moment without excluding, constraining or imposing.

Each experience tells, in its own way, the same quiet truth: wine does not need intoxication to tell its story. At BeaulieuBooking.com, we have simply chosen to trace this path, to offer these encounters and to say, quite simply: we have freed wine from alcohol, not from its soul.