Oxford Companion on Biodynamic Wine
Posted: 20 Jan 2025, 13:50
The Oxford Companion to Wine Robinson J 2015
Biodynamic viticulture is, depending on your perspective, an enhanced or extreme form of ORGANIC VITICULTURE. This controversial practice has produced some impressive results but without the reassurance of conclusive scientific explanation.
Biodynamics is the oldest 'green' farming movement, pre-dating organics by 20 years. It is based on theories described in 1924 by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) for agriculture in general. All biodynamic vineyards practise organic viticulture, but biodynamics differs from organics in three ways.
The vineyard should become a self-sustaining individual or 'farm organism' (see SUSTAINABLE VITICULTURE and ECOSYSTEM):
it should be treated regularly with nine herb-and mineral-based biodynamic 'preparations';
and key tasks such as planting, PRUNING, PLOUGHING, PICKING, and BOTTLING should be timed to harness beneficial 'formative forces' exerted by earthly and celestial-planetary, solar, stellar, and especially lunar-rhythms.
France's first biodynamic wine-grower, Francois Bouchet (1932-2005), began using the technique on his 6 ha/15 acre Domaine de Chateau Gaillard in Touraine in 1962. But France's biodynamic wine movement remained almost non-existent until the late 1980s, when Bouchet began helping leading names such as Domaine Leflaive of PULIGNY-MONTRACHET, Domaine LEROY in Vosne-Romanee, CHAPOUTIER in Hermitage, Huet in Vouvray, and Kreydenweiss in Alsace to convert to biodynamics.
These producers shared a belief that only a less technologically driven form of viticulture would allow wine QUALITY to keep improving, and were emboldened by former INRA soil microbiologist Claude Bourguignon's 1988 declaration that Burgundy's vineyards contained 'less life than Sahara desert sand'. Bourguignon made no claim to understanding how biodynamics works; but his research showed that levels of microbial life in vineyard topsails (see SOIL BIOTA) were significantly greater on organic and biodynamic plots than on those of conventionally farmed ones.
In addition, Bourguignon found significant increases of microbial life on biodynamic vine roots at depths of several metres compared with conventionally and even organically farmed vines, and that the roots were thickest, longest and most able to penetrate the soil, and to assimilate trace elements (see VINE NUTRITION, MICRONUTRIENTS, and MYCORRHIZA), when grown biodynamically.
The particularity of biodynamics is the use of animal sense organs such as cow horns as sheaths when making six of the nine biodynamic preparations. It is believed that animal organs enable the medicinal properties of the substances encased within - cow manure, ground quartz, oak bark, and the flowers of yarrow, chamomile, and dandelion - to become fully effective throughout the farm, keeping it within what Steiner called 'the realm of the living'. The animal organ sheaths disintegrate naturally or are discarded before the preparation material within is applied.
Nevertheless, it is this aspect that convinces non-believers that biodynamics is an unscientific and disturbingly irrational cult. The two main biodynamic field sprays are horn manure and horn silica. Only a handful of the former or a few grams of the latter are required per hectare. They are prepared by burying the cow manure or the ground quartz (silica) in a cow horn for six months over winter or summer respectively. Horn manure is sprayed on the soil in the afternoon, in autumn and early spring, to stimulate microbial life in the soil, helping maintain SOIL STRUCTURE and levels of ORGANIC MATTER, and encouraging deeper vine roots.
Horn silica is sprayed over the vines, at sunrise, either side of FLOWERING to regulate plant metabolism and promote stronger, more upright vine growth, to LIGNIFY the wood, and to improve the nutritional and keeping qualities of the wine.
One further field spray, the silica-rich common horsetail (Equisetum arvense), is sprayed as a fresh tea or fermented liquid manure to encourage fungal spores to remain in the soil rather than affecting the vine. It is a fundamental tenet that all three biodynamic spray preparations are 'dynamized' before application. This involves rhythmically stirring the material in water, first one way and then the other, to create a vortex. When the direction of stirring is changed the water is thought to undergo chaos, allowing beneficial 'formative forces' within the preparation to be transferred to the water and thence to the vineyard when it is sprayed.
Organic fertilizer in the form of COMPOST is used to nourish the soil but biodynamic compost differs from other composts in that the remaining six biodynamic preparations made from yarrow, chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion, and valerian must be inserted into the compost pile, which should be manure-based. The compost preparations are said to infuse the manure with vitalizing living forces whose role is more important to vine growth and form than the actual composted manure. Where specific ingredients are not available, substitutes may be used. For example, Casuarina stricta is often substituted for common horsetail in Australia.
Late-20th-century MECHANIZATION saw the almost complete disappearance of livestock from vineyards. Biodynamic growers are at the forefront of reversing this trend by acquiring livestock for manure (cows), traction (horses, mules), weed control (sheep), or pest control (chickens to eat cutworms). In this way, vine monocultures begin changing towards the biodynamic ideal of self-sustaining farm organisms, creating a natural equilibrium in which pests and diseases become potentially far less potent. Biodynamic growers see plants as comprising four 'organs': ROOT, LEAF/shoot, flower, and fruit, and these are respectively linked to the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire (solar heat). Each plant component is said to be favoured during particular points of the moon's sidereal cycle when the moon passes 111 front of one of the 12 constellations of the astronomical (rather than astrological) zodiac.
Thus, for example, spraying horn manure on the soil for root growth is said to be most effective if the moon is in front of an earth/ root constellation such as Bull, Virgin, or Goat. These windows occur every nine days or so but for two or three days only, so only the smallest vineyards, or those with abundant labour, can time all their agricultural work according to the biodynamlc calendar. Biodynamicists claim that on conventional vineyards where neither biodynamic compost nor the field spray preparations are used, the effect of these earthly and celestial rhythms will not be felt as the soil and the vines will not have been sensitized to them.
Cellar work is also said to benefit from the biodynamic calendar, with, it is claimed, bottling best under Lion if the wine is designed to age ( the heat/fruit 'force' will be most concentrated in the wine at this point, so bottling then will capture or seal it).
Where VINE PESTS need to be controlled in biodynamic farming, a number of the pests are collected, burnt, and their ashes scattered around the affected area to discourage future manifestations.
Biodynamic viticulture alone will not a great wine make: good viticultural and winemaking practices such as CANOPY MANAGEMENT and cellar HYGIEN are also essential. Biodynamic winemaking standards are similar to those used for ORGANIC WINE, but impose stricter guidelines regarding ENRICHMENT, NUTRIENT additions, the use of energy-intensive practices (eg PASTEURIZATION), MICRO-OXYGENATION, and recyclable PACKAGING. In 2013 over 700 vineyards worldwide comprising more than 10,000 ha/24,710 acres were certified biodynamic, either by the German-based Demeter International organization which de facto controls the Biodynamic (with a capital B) agricultural trademark, or by the wine-only and French-based Syndicat International des Vignerons en Culture Bio-dynamlque (Biodyvin), or by Australia's government, which, uniquely, has its own biodynamic rulebook.
Biodynamic vineyards range in size from a handful of hectares to several hundred. Vineyards whose biodynamic conversion proved catalytic either locally or further afield, in addition to those mentioned above, include Nicolas Joly in Savennieres (1985), Jean-Pierre Fleury in Champagne (1989), James Millton in New Zealand (1989), Ch Romanin in Provence (1990), Guy Bossard in Muscadet (1992), Michel Grisard in Savoie (1994), the Fetzer and Frey families in California (mid 1990s), Cazes in Roussillon ( 1998), Nikolaihof in Austria (1998), Alvaro Espinoza in Chile (1999), Cooper Mountain in Oregon (1999), Reyneke in South Africa (2000), Valgiano in Tuscany (2001), Comte Abbatucci in Corsica (2002), Stephane Tissot in the Jura (2004), Domalne Vacheron in Sancerre (2004), Ch Pontet-Canet in Bordeaux (2005), Dr Blirklin-Wolf in Germany (2005), Cullen in Western Australia (2005), Noemia in Argentina (2006), and Southbrookin Canada (2008). .. Despite scepticism in some quarters, biodnamic growers are becoming less reticent about their biodynamic practices; and increasing numbers of organic growers now claim to use some (usually the less esoteric) elements of biodynamics. See also ORGANIC VITICULTURE, ORGANIC WINE, SUSTAINABLE VITICULTURE. M.W. Waldin, M., Biodynamic Wine-Growmg: Theory & Practice (London, 2012).
Biodynamic viticulture is, depending on your perspective, an enhanced or extreme form of ORGANIC VITICULTURE. This controversial practice has produced some impressive results but without the reassurance of conclusive scientific explanation.
Biodynamics is the oldest 'green' farming movement, pre-dating organics by 20 years. It is based on theories described in 1924 by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) for agriculture in general. All biodynamic vineyards practise organic viticulture, but biodynamics differs from organics in three ways.
The vineyard should become a self-sustaining individual or 'farm organism' (see SUSTAINABLE VITICULTURE and ECOSYSTEM):
it should be treated regularly with nine herb-and mineral-based biodynamic 'preparations';
and key tasks such as planting, PRUNING, PLOUGHING, PICKING, and BOTTLING should be timed to harness beneficial 'formative forces' exerted by earthly and celestial-planetary, solar, stellar, and especially lunar-rhythms.
France's first biodynamic wine-grower, Francois Bouchet (1932-2005), began using the technique on his 6 ha/15 acre Domaine de Chateau Gaillard in Touraine in 1962. But France's biodynamic wine movement remained almost non-existent until the late 1980s, when Bouchet began helping leading names such as Domaine Leflaive of PULIGNY-MONTRACHET, Domaine LEROY in Vosne-Romanee, CHAPOUTIER in Hermitage, Huet in Vouvray, and Kreydenweiss in Alsace to convert to biodynamics.
These producers shared a belief that only a less technologically driven form of viticulture would allow wine QUALITY to keep improving, and were emboldened by former INRA soil microbiologist Claude Bourguignon's 1988 declaration that Burgundy's vineyards contained 'less life than Sahara desert sand'. Bourguignon made no claim to understanding how biodynamics works; but his research showed that levels of microbial life in vineyard topsails (see SOIL BIOTA) were significantly greater on organic and biodynamic plots than on those of conventionally farmed ones.
In addition, Bourguignon found significant increases of microbial life on biodynamic vine roots at depths of several metres compared with conventionally and even organically farmed vines, and that the roots were thickest, longest and most able to penetrate the soil, and to assimilate trace elements (see VINE NUTRITION, MICRONUTRIENTS, and MYCORRHIZA), when grown biodynamically.
The particularity of biodynamics is the use of animal sense organs such as cow horns as sheaths when making six of the nine biodynamic preparations. It is believed that animal organs enable the medicinal properties of the substances encased within - cow manure, ground quartz, oak bark, and the flowers of yarrow, chamomile, and dandelion - to become fully effective throughout the farm, keeping it within what Steiner called 'the realm of the living'. The animal organ sheaths disintegrate naturally or are discarded before the preparation material within is applied.
Nevertheless, it is this aspect that convinces non-believers that biodynamics is an unscientific and disturbingly irrational cult. The two main biodynamic field sprays are horn manure and horn silica. Only a handful of the former or a few grams of the latter are required per hectare. They are prepared by burying the cow manure or the ground quartz (silica) in a cow horn for six months over winter or summer respectively. Horn manure is sprayed on the soil in the afternoon, in autumn and early spring, to stimulate microbial life in the soil, helping maintain SOIL STRUCTURE and levels of ORGANIC MATTER, and encouraging deeper vine roots.
Horn silica is sprayed over the vines, at sunrise, either side of FLOWERING to regulate plant metabolism and promote stronger, more upright vine growth, to LIGNIFY the wood, and to improve the nutritional and keeping qualities of the wine.
One further field spray, the silica-rich common horsetail (Equisetum arvense), is sprayed as a fresh tea or fermented liquid manure to encourage fungal spores to remain in the soil rather than affecting the vine. It is a fundamental tenet that all three biodynamic spray preparations are 'dynamized' before application. This involves rhythmically stirring the material in water, first one way and then the other, to create a vortex. When the direction of stirring is changed the water is thought to undergo chaos, allowing beneficial 'formative forces' within the preparation to be transferred to the water and thence to the vineyard when it is sprayed.
Organic fertilizer in the form of COMPOST is used to nourish the soil but biodynamic compost differs from other composts in that the remaining six biodynamic preparations made from yarrow, chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion, and valerian must be inserted into the compost pile, which should be manure-based. The compost preparations are said to infuse the manure with vitalizing living forces whose role is more important to vine growth and form than the actual composted manure. Where specific ingredients are not available, substitutes may be used. For example, Casuarina stricta is often substituted for common horsetail in Australia.
Late-20th-century MECHANIZATION saw the almost complete disappearance of livestock from vineyards. Biodynamic growers are at the forefront of reversing this trend by acquiring livestock for manure (cows), traction (horses, mules), weed control (sheep), or pest control (chickens to eat cutworms). In this way, vine monocultures begin changing towards the biodynamic ideal of self-sustaining farm organisms, creating a natural equilibrium in which pests and diseases become potentially far less potent. Biodynamic growers see plants as comprising four 'organs': ROOT, LEAF/shoot, flower, and fruit, and these are respectively linked to the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire (solar heat). Each plant component is said to be favoured during particular points of the moon's sidereal cycle when the moon passes 111 front of one of the 12 constellations of the astronomical (rather than astrological) zodiac.
Thus, for example, spraying horn manure on the soil for root growth is said to be most effective if the moon is in front of an earth/ root constellation such as Bull, Virgin, or Goat. These windows occur every nine days or so but for two or three days only, so only the smallest vineyards, or those with abundant labour, can time all their agricultural work according to the biodynamlc calendar. Biodynamicists claim that on conventional vineyards where neither biodynamic compost nor the field spray preparations are used, the effect of these earthly and celestial rhythms will not be felt as the soil and the vines will not have been sensitized to them.
Cellar work is also said to benefit from the biodynamic calendar, with, it is claimed, bottling best under Lion if the wine is designed to age ( the heat/fruit 'force' will be most concentrated in the wine at this point, so bottling then will capture or seal it).
Where VINE PESTS need to be controlled in biodynamic farming, a number of the pests are collected, burnt, and their ashes scattered around the affected area to discourage future manifestations.
Biodynamic viticulture alone will not a great wine make: good viticultural and winemaking practices such as CANOPY MANAGEMENT and cellar HYGIEN are also essential. Biodynamic winemaking standards are similar to those used for ORGANIC WINE, but impose stricter guidelines regarding ENRICHMENT, NUTRIENT additions, the use of energy-intensive practices (eg PASTEURIZATION), MICRO-OXYGENATION, and recyclable PACKAGING. In 2013 over 700 vineyards worldwide comprising more than 10,000 ha/24,710 acres were certified biodynamic, either by the German-based Demeter International organization which de facto controls the Biodynamic (with a capital B) agricultural trademark, or by the wine-only and French-based Syndicat International des Vignerons en Culture Bio-dynamlque (Biodyvin), or by Australia's government, which, uniquely, has its own biodynamic rulebook.
Biodynamic vineyards range in size from a handful of hectares to several hundred. Vineyards whose biodynamic conversion proved catalytic either locally or further afield, in addition to those mentioned above, include Nicolas Joly in Savennieres (1985), Jean-Pierre Fleury in Champagne (1989), James Millton in New Zealand (1989), Ch Romanin in Provence (1990), Guy Bossard in Muscadet (1992), Michel Grisard in Savoie (1994), the Fetzer and Frey families in California (mid 1990s), Cazes in Roussillon ( 1998), Nikolaihof in Austria (1998), Alvaro Espinoza in Chile (1999), Cooper Mountain in Oregon (1999), Reyneke in South Africa (2000), Valgiano in Tuscany (2001), Comte Abbatucci in Corsica (2002), Stephane Tissot in the Jura (2004), Domalne Vacheron in Sancerre (2004), Ch Pontet-Canet in Bordeaux (2005), Dr Blirklin-Wolf in Germany (2005), Cullen in Western Australia (2005), Noemia in Argentina (2006), and Southbrookin Canada (2008). .. Despite scepticism in some quarters, biodnamic growers are becoming less reticent about their biodynamic practices; and increasing numbers of organic growers now claim to use some (usually the less esoteric) elements of biodynamics. See also ORGANIC VITICULTURE, ORGANIC WINE, SUSTAINABLE VITICULTURE. M.W. Waldin, M., Biodynamic Wine-Growmg: Theory & Practice (London, 2012).