What Is Biodynamic Wine?
Have you heard of biodynamic wine?
This anti-chemical approach most definitely predates organic wine - just to throw that out there.
Biodynamic wine making takes a slightly old-school approach. It looks at the whole wine operation as one living organism. That includes everything in & around the vineyard - including other vegetation, animals, and the moon & stars.
With biodynamic farming, each vineyard is looked at as its own ecosystem.That means everything is both self-sustaining and self-regulating.
Biodynamic winemaking, to put it in popular terms, is a vibe. It’s all about energy management and holistic agriculture.
For a farm or vineyard to be categorized as biodynamic, it must dedicate 10% of the land to biodiversity. But most who commit are entirely intermixed with plants among the vines to encourage beneficial insects & waste from the animals is composted to support the cycle of plant to animal to plant and so on.
When it comes to biodynamic winemaking, the vineyard comes first & that means respecting the four classical elements (going pre-Plato here).
What are the four elements? You know - Earth, fire, air, and water. In respecting the four elements, the schedule goes as follows:
Fruit days mean it’s a day of harvest
Root days mean the time has come to prune
Flower days are hands off days
Leaf days encourage watering
Biodynamic wine differs from organic wine mainly for three reasons:
Herbs & minerals are used to enrich the soil & fight off disease
The astronomical calendar is used for harvesting & planting
Organic wine generally only refers to the grapes - where as (again) biodynamic means the vineyard, plants, insects, animals, etc.
With biodynamic wine, there are no chemicals or manufactured additions used at any part of the process.
And if you’re wondering if it tastes different, the answer is no - not really. But it definitely is a lot smoother & healthier.
Curious? Check out wine from Raymond Vineyards & DeLoach Vineyards.