Biodynamic wines

As the adage goes, Earth Day, every day and in an increasing number of the world’s vineyards it is Earth Day, every day. Especially those that have gone Biodynamic.

Biodynamics is more than just planting a bull’s horn at the northernmost vineyard row on the night of the first full moon of Spring. Or more precisely, it isn’t a load of mumbo-jumbo that excites old hippies and members of Wiccan covens.

The origins of Biodynamics go back to the pre-hippie days of 1924 when Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner delivered a series of lectures entitled: Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture. His idea was to attempt to bridge what he saw as the widening gap between the spiritual, as in Earth Mother kind of stuff, and the material world, as in pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc. In short, men had become too mechanized, farming had become too mechanical, our connection with the earth, be it profoundly spiritual or plainly utile, had been severed. Using Steiner’s kinder gentler approach, or his biodynamic outlook, all people, not just farmers, could refasten this necessary bond.

Rudolf Steiner

To farm Biodynamically is to think of one’s land/farm in its entirety or as a living organism that can be treated in the same manner that present-day practitioners of holistic medicine practice healing. The land one cultivates is subject to the same cosmic rules that rule everything else. Life happens rhythmically, growth is a cycle, for every season, turn, turn, turn. Taking this holistic view, soil, for example, is not just the material from which plants grow but is an organism unto itself. To sully the soil with synthetic pesticides is harmful to this small part of the larger whole. If one finds that there soil is diseased or their crops become infested these setbacks are part of a larger problem and are better “righted” through application of natural cures instead of attacked head-on using poisons.

In the wine world Biodynamic has found numerous adherents. In the US there are increasing numbers of wineries making the switch to Biodynamic farming. Notable among them is the Ceago Winery in Lake County, California. Owned by Jim Fetzer, Ceago was one of the first wineries in the country to go Bio and one of the first farms of any kind to be certified Biodynamic by the Demeter Association.

Here is a partial list of wines that are reasonably easy to find and affordably priced that have been Biodynamically produced for those interested in tasting the difference...

France -- Burgundy: Domaine de Comtes, Lafon, Leflaive, Pierre Morey (He’s the winemaker at Leflaive but he has his own domaine.)

Alsace: Kreydenweiss, Ostertag Weinbach, Zind-Humbrecht

Bordeaux: La Tour-Figeac (St. Emilion)

Rhone: Chapoutier

Italy: Trinchero (Piedmont)

Chile: Antiyal

USA: Ceago, Frey

Australia: Robinvale