Biodynamic Wines

Bio what? Is that wine not organic? What is organic wine anyway? And do you want to tell me that not all wines are organic?

These are a few questions that are thrown at me on a regular basis and frankly – no, not all wines are organic. In fact the majority are full of chemical residues, which you, the consumer, can enjoy in full. Organic wines, on the other hand, offer the consumer a true taste of terroir, where both the grape and the soil it sprang from have not been adulterated with a plethora of chemicals.

Over the last two decades, a growing number of wine growers realized that their vineyards were completely out of balance. They needed ever more fertilizer, weed killers, pesticides etc. to produce what they considered healthy grapes. In drought years they needed to irrigate the vineyards; in heavy downpours the soil was washed away and it became increasingly clear that this practice was not sustainable. In addition, the vines were growing in virtually dead soil after forty or more years of chemical cocktails applied to it to boost production and have these “healthy” grapes. Many converted to organic production and a few went on to biodynamic wine growing.

Many people understand the difference between organic and conventional methods of production and are quite willing to appreciate that organic vegetables may be better for you (eventually they may also make the logical connection with organic wines). Go a little further and introduce biodynamic methods of growing and you have reached the limits of credulity. One can safely say that biodynamic go well beyond the limits of traditional organic methods in terms of land and plant husbandry, which is ,after all, a return to earlier agricultural methods with the addition of modern know-how.

But what is biodynamic agriculture and what makes it so special and why should it test anyone’s credulity.

In 1924 the Austrian social scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner gave a lecture on agriculture wherein he outlined his understanding of a sustainable way to produce food. Today the organisation that supervises the production and guarantees the quality of biodynamic production here in Ireland is Demeter.

Biodynamic farming works according to accepted organic standards but in addition incorporates metaphysical aspects and concepts such as vitality, life force and astral forces. It takes for granted that there are energies and natural rhythms that influence us as well as animals and plants and these forces can be integrated and harnessed to achieve harmony on the farm or in the vineyard.

Unlike in agriculture where crops are rotated on a regular basis and, therefore, soil life is influenced by the crops planted, this is not possible in viniculture as the vines have been in the vineyards for generations. It becomes imperative to introduce the necessary micro organisms in the form of compost to prevent nutrient deficiencies.

The art of making compost is one of the fundamentals in biodynamic farming. There are a number of preparations: “fermenting yarrow flowers in a stag’s bladder to help make the soil, and thus the crop, more sensitive and receptive to cosmic, especially solar forces (502); fermenting chamomile flowers in a cow intestine to stimulate the soil life that helps prevent malformations in the growth of the crop (503); fermenting stinging nettles in a pit to regulate iron release in the soil, making the soil “intelligent”, cleansing it (504); fermenting oak bark in the skull of a domesticated animal as a means of reining in excess “etheric” forces, preventing or arresting the tendency in plants towards disease (505); fermenting dandelion flowers in a cow mesentery to help the soil regulate itself, allowing vital trace elements to be released to crops (506) and fermenting valerian flowers as a means of stimulating the warmth processes involved in photosynthesis (507).”

These preparations are added to the compost, but they are also used as sprays during the year in the vineyard to support and strengthen plants against disease. It is obvious that there is not enough room to go further into detail. Suffice to say that producers working biodynamically claim that they see and taste a difference in their wines. In years like 2003, which was an exceptionally hot year on the continent, even a non-professional could see the difference in the vineyard where the poor mineral fertilizer fed vines were dying of thirst.

Of course there is no shortage of people who completely dismiss biodynamic agriculture and label it non scientific at best and humbug when less kind. There has always been more to life than the eye could see and it is the narrow approach to life, the fearful one, where we want to control every aspect of it and only accept what can be proven that has brought us to a state where we live in total disharmony. Yet, there is also scientific proof that organic agriculture produces more life than conventional one and that biodynamic is still superior to organic in two long term experiments that have compared the three systems over a 20 years period. True enough, these studies can not explain why there is this difference but the fact is that there is a difference. For anyone really interested in the specifics of biodynamic wine growing there is a book by one of the most ardent promoters of it, Nicolas Joly, “Wine from Sky to Earth” , who goes into some detail of his experiences and why he thinks that wine from biodynamic vineyards are superior.

Source:
- Steve Diver, Attra, Biodynamic Farming & Compost Preparation, February 1999
- Monty Waldin, „Biodynamic Wines“, pp. 7-8