If you read anything stranger this week, you may want to dial back the mescaline intake. The San Francisco Gate investigates (via Boing Boing) the rise of biodynamic wines, the truth is 100 times wackier than you ever imagined. Part organic farming, part new age zodiac nonsense, it’s as surreal a read as you are likely to stumble across unless Jung’s Red Book waits for you on the bedside table.
So my original thoughts were, what the hell, if they want to make “super-organic” wine, what’s the harm? And then I remembered I’m a grown rational adult and these woolly headed morons that go in for this deserve nothing but scorn.
British Columbia hasn’t jumped into the biodynamic craze as far as I can tell, or that anyone will admit to. Summerhill and their goofy pyramid seem like the most likely to fall for this absurdity, so keep your eyes peeled.If anyone knows of BC biodynamic wines, leave the details in the comments below.
Remember, if you ever get the chance to taste a biodynamic wine, swirl, sniff, sip and pronounce a hearty nose of bullshit.
~KT
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Really? This is the first you’ve heard of biodynamic wines? The concept has been around for a long time. There’s at least 1 winery in Ontario making biodynamic wine, and many many more in Europe.
Non-grape farmers use similar techniques in many places around the world.
Is Biodynamic farming that common? Does the cattle horn that filled with manure and buried into the ground have to be organic? Is it difficult to obtain red deer urinary bladders and yarrow flowers to start the composting cycle? I know I sound like I am mocking – but I am not. Solid organic farming techniques I can get my head around, the additional steps required for Biodynamic farming seem to add a level of complexity that would be difficult for the average farmer to manage. Is there a payoff to all these extra steps? I am genuinely curious.
Actually there are many wines that are Biodynamic. Emiliana vineyards out of Chile are going to be the largest practioners of organic and biodynamic viticulture in the world within two years. Look up wine makers Nicolas Joly and Alvero Espinoza. When you get over the little bit of hocus pocus, it all makes sense. The moon rules the Earth when it comes to growing cycles.
Lindsay Lohan? Mel Gibson? and you’re claiming farming in harmony with the earth and the moon to be the nuttiest thing I’ll read this week? Ask the “wooly-headed morons” making some of the best wines in the world ( Leroy, Château de la Roche aux Moines, Chapoutier, Zind-Humbrecht ) if they think the notion is nonsense.
I went on a Biodynmaic Workshop set up by some Okanagan Wine Makers, we toured two wineries in Walla Walla with Philipe Armenier, From what I saw was not “Running Naked” in the vineyard, a lot more hands of the vineyard taking care of your vines, just being more “in tuned” Like he mentioned, you can take farmers almanc and cross out farmers and put Biodynmaic they are similiar. Poplar Grove might switch over as they were on the trip but who knows. Jamie who planted his vineyard biodynmic [which does not happen often] will be Biodynmaic.
Does it go against what we have been taught over the lsat half century? damn straight it does, then again that last half gave us “Red tomatoes” with no flavour, no we find heirlooms and are in love with em and pay extra. yeah its not the same but its on that same principle.
I think Chapoutier wines from the rhone valley are biodynamic, and they’re easily accessible at the liquour store.
You’re a little late to jump on the Biodynamic-hating bandwagon, but it’s natural to denounce something you don’t understand. Biodynamics isn’t strange and mystical – it’s farming using holistic methods (as opposed to chemical farming), lunar cycles (which have been used by farmers for thousands of years) and picturing the farm as a self sustaining entity. It’s simply a way of growing that gets the farmer back into the vineyard and connecting with land, as opposed to hosing everything down with synthetic chemicals.
Some of the world’s most revered wineries have been silently farming biodynamically for decades (or have switched recently). Domaine Romanee Conti, Domaine Leroy, Huet, Nikolaihof, Nicolas Joly, Marc Tempe, Zind-Humbricht, Ostertag, Chapoutier, Larmandier-Bernier, Gauby, Clot de l’Oum, Tissot, Pingus (!), Laflaive, Lafon, Dujac, Morey, Brocard, Bret Brothers, Graver, Felton Road, Rippon, Hensche, Brick House, Grgich. I could go on and on, but I’m wasting my time.
Biodynamics isn’t bullshit – your attempt at sensationalism is.
Not using chemicals and treating your land holistically is not the sole domain of biodynamics. That’s just good organic farming practices. But biodynamic does entail some weird shit (burying animal horns and intestines). Why do this? If you are biodynamic – do you have to adhere to all of the practices? And I’ll tell you why it raises eyebrows. Because animal sacrifices and offerings smack of superstition and doing something for the sake of doing it.
And if you are a strict vegetarian – would’nt you skip the biodynamic wines when animals have been killed? Certainly there are strict vegans that avoid wines if even organic fining agents have been used.
Many of the ‘preparations’ are guidelines and not always used. The use of biodynamics is meant to include the vineyard in a self-sustaining farm with livestock and all the rest. From what I understand, a couple of the preparations that do include some strange methods – burying a cow’s horn filled with manure – are meant to use animal byproducts as opposed to sacrificing animals for this sake. I’ve never heard of a producer that sacrifices their livestock for their horns or bladder. Most of the mixtures are based on composting different plants and barks to increase microbial life in the soil (as opposed to chemical farming which often leaves the soil devoid of any life), or spraying them on the vines. Again, a winemaker can follow ‘biodynamic principles’ to use what they find works for their vineyard without following every single point of Rudolf Steiner’s adopted (and adapted) teachings. If a grower can create a healthy vineyard and forgo the use of conventional farming methods (synthetic chemicals), I’m all for it, be the method that works for them organic, biodynamic, Fukuoka, or whatever else.
I’d also like to point out that I’m not a stark Biodynamic supporter, but I do feel that we should be less critical of winemakers using these systems because they can produce better fruit (and in turn fantastic wine) as opposed to those using these catchphrases as marketing. Because the original teachings are a little strange, doesn’t mean we should burn some of the world’s best winemakers at the stake.
One last thing… I don’t feel that biodynamic or organic farming will automatically give you better wine – I’ve tasted some awful wine made by all methods. However, everyone agrees that you need to start with great, healthy grapes to make great wine, and when done properly, using whatever methods possible, this can be achieved.
There’s a good debate on the matter at Cory Cartwright’s site:
http://saignee.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/an-atheist-defense-of-biodynamics/
Although not certified BD, Kiln House Vineyard in Penticton, BC has been growing since they planted in 2006 as per the BD principles. Watch for the first Grenache/Syrah wine from their site to appear this fall via Stag’s Hollow Winery. It will open eyes to the possibilities….
As an aside, Rudolf Steiner was also behind the Waldorf education system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education
Jake – thanks for response and the debate you link to is excellent.
Also another point, especially with regards to wine making, Biodynamic is to do with the soil. It has nothing really to do with the winemaking. It stops once the grapes are picked, Now wine making you could go into “natural” wine making which is no sulfur, and maybe follow the cycles but there is no preparations in making the wine no adding x+y thats been buried for 6months etc
i beleive i have located something nuttie thiw week than BW’s.
Low and behold the strangest innovation in beer packaging. ever. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7904698/Beer-to-be-sold-in-dead-animals.html
Farming and winemaking are two different animals, I have tasted some poor biodynamic wines and some great traditionally farmed wines, but this is not the point. To decry that bio-dynamic farming is bull shit does a massive injustice to growers who have dedicated their lives in crafting the best wine they can and ensuring their land is able to provide for future generations.
One only has to go back to the 1950’s or ‘60’s to those ‘wooly headed morons’ were right, we have seen the results of corporate farming, seedless watermelons and tasteless tomatoes are two that come out in my mind
Over the past 25 years I have had the privilege to travel to many parts of the wine world and taste first hand the difference in wines which have been bio dynamically farmed, the results speak for themselves.
Two of the people I respect in the wine business, Larry Turley from Turley Wine Cellars & John Williams from Frogs Leap, have over time; have converted their farming practices to biodynamics.
Larry, a retired emergency room doctor and a qualified pilot and John a long time winemaker and student of biodynamic farming are hardly morons. They craft wines which speak of purity, authenticity and a sense of place and their wines are better than anything I have tasted from them in the past 20 years.
The Japanese have a management expression “Genchi Genbutsu” roughly translated it means ‘get your boots on and go and see what is happening’. My advice to Mr. Talent is buy some boots and a plane ticket.
Any farming practice that takes a deeper and more respectful and harmonious approach to the earth and its cycles, no matter how strange it might seem to the layperson, should not be dismissed but rather furthered researched and supported.
I will keep my wool hat and continue to wear it with pride knowing that some of the old ways, before reductionist science became gospel, are being preserved and being used to great success.
Listed below is a link to an interview did last week with Sam Weaver from Churton winery in New Zealand. Sam is a fully trained micro biologist and came at biodynamics from a scientific point of view, his wines speak for themselves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnq8wwkuYZg
We visited a biodynamic vineyard in Italy a few years ago. It was between 2 other vineyards that weren’t biodynamic, and the difference in the vines was striking. The biodynamic vineyard vines were much healthier, and even a richer shade of green. A lot of organics is marketing crap, but it’s good to keep an open mind about biodynamics (skeptical is good). John Clerides – will you join me in a new movement – Put the Freakin’ Seeds (and taste) Back in Watermelon!!? :)
I am an opinionated person myself, but I try to have some background info before dismissing the facts.
Biodynamic farming is not new. The term dates back to 1930 and the practices to 4000 BC. The “preps” are the newer part and more controversial and difficult to explain, even to me as a certified BD farmer in BC, Canada since 1998 and a knowledge about it since 1982.
To me the most important aspect of BD is the respect for the soil, with the farmer and his operation a PART of the Universe and a desire to fit harmoniously into his surrounding. The real bullshit with a track record of destruction is the “farmer” that has tried to dominate the planet and life itself.
To bad we are all so dispersed and communicate haphazardly in and from our little isolated boxes, exactly as Big Brother envisioned it centuries ago.
Yes, put the seeds back in the melon, they are good for you.
I would like to find people that care about quality not quantity. It is like that slice of bread that sticks to your ribs. Twohundred grams with more nutrients than a pound of wonderloaf. A grape with 14 Brix instead of 8.
And so on and on..
karlhann@shaw.ca
Biota Farm
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