Organic and Biodynamic Wine
What Is It?
Do you think cow manure fermented in a cow horn and buried in the soil might improve the taste of your wine? Especially when it's coordinated with the phases of the moon?
Well, Burgundy winery owner Anne-Claude Leflaive tried it and produced two identical 1er Cru Puligny-Montrachet wines in 1996. One from a biodynamic plot, the other from the adjoining plot. 12 out of 13 professional tasters, tasting the wines blind, preferred the biodynamic wine.
What is biodynamic farming?
The philosophy of biodynamic farming is complex, bordering on religion, astrology, and spiritual divination. It was proposed in 1924 by Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner, but has grown worldwide to a position of curious recognition.
In addition to many religious and philosophical underpinnings, biodynamic viticulture is centered on nine required processes if certification from Demeter, the international organization devoted to biodynamic farming, is desired:
1. Cow manure fermented in a cow horn,which is then buried and over-winters in the soil—sprayed on the soil.
2. Ground quartz (silica) mixed with rain water and packed in a cow’s horn, buried in spring and then dug up in autumn—sprayed on the vine.
Compost Additions
3. Flower heads of yarrow fermented in a stag’s bladder
4. Flower heads of camomile fermented in the soil
5. Stinging nettle tea
6. Oak bark fermented in the skull of a domestic animal
7. Flower heads of dandelion fermented in cow mesentery
8. Juice from valerian flowers
Together these control the breakdown of the manures and compost, helping to make trace elements more available to the plant. Nettle tea is also sometimes sprayed on weak or low vigor vines.
9. Tea prepared from horsetail plant (Equisetum)—used as a spray to counter fungal diseases
Modern biosynamic viticulture
Leflaive's experiment raised many eyebrows in Burgundy. So many that today there are more biodynamic vineyards there than in any other winegrowing region in the world. France leads the countries of the world in biodynamic viticulture, but it's catching on very strong in Germany, Italy, South America and the United States.
The famous house of Dom. Leroy in Burgundy released a biodynamic 2000 Clos de la Roche that was hailed by wine writer Tom Stevenson as the finest current biodynamic wine in the world. That one will set you back around $500!
We've gone through the current releases of Oregon Pinot Noir from Archery Summit and found very noticeable and positive differences in their one biodynamic bottling.
What makes these wines different and possibly better? We don't really have a clue, but soil scientists are working hard to try to figure it out. One viticulturist we spoke to suggested the possibility that biodynamic farming focuses on soil quality and that can't possibly produce anything but positive results. But others say that infertile and unaccommodating soils produce the best fruit for winemaking.
So the future of biodynamic farming appears to be uncertain, although an increasing number of wineries are experimenting with it. Expect higher prices for biodynamic wines. And stay tuned.
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