The first problem with biodynamics is that is so utterly misunderstood (“woo-woo stuff, dancing naked in the light of the moon”, “hippy mumbo-jumbo” and such like, usually pronounced by people who have not taken the time to look at what BD actually is). It doesn’t help that some of the most vocal proponents (e.g. from the Loire) are good at making it even more mystic.

(Look instead at others, like: DRC, Chapoutier, Zind Humbrecht, Boekenhoutskloof, Domaine Gauby, Clos Marie and many more down to earth farmers…)

If you look at it more closely there are a lot of interesting and sensible vineyard practices involved. By the way, many would argue that the moon and cosmic calendars are not strictly part of the biodynamic principles (contrary to the original post), even if many (most) BD producers use them. As, by the way, do many producers that are not BD but who e.g. take care to bottle in the “correct” moon phase.

The most interesting and perhaps most important parts of the methodology seems rather to be the treatments and the way to work the vineyard. And if you look at some of the treatments, at what they are and at what they do, it’s not much stranger than throwing various chemical substances at the vines, but perhaps a bit more “natural”.

A person who explains it in a very down to earth way is Christine Saurel of Domaine Montirius. We have a mini-series with interviews with her here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=1E07B9D7CFAE27DA

Now, this does not mean that I personally am convinced of that BD “works”, and should not be interpreted as such. But at least one should take the time and listen and to look at the vineyards.

But in the end the proof is in the bottle: does it make good wine? But that is perhaps not the right question, because the wine is made be people. So, rather, do THEY make good wine? And yes, many biodynamic wine produces make excellent wine.

Is it because they are biodynamic? Don’t know. Perhaps that is part of the answer, perhaps not. But perhaps more importantly, they care about what they do and they pay attention to their vines and their wine making.

I had a chat with Rudiger Gretcher of Boekenhoustskloof a while back; while they have every intention to turn all their vineyards to biodynamic production they wont be advertising the fact on the label.

I think also that teh arrival of biodynamics has made producers question every aspect of what they were doing, over and above the application of straightforward organics.

Beyond that, having applied biodynamic preparations to improve my own garden – including successfully fighting off a rather insistent case of apple scab on my crabapple tree – I can testify that I’ve obtained results from using the practical precepts of BD. I remain skeptical on more mystical aspects of the whole philosophy, but more and more convinced of the concrete effects I’ve seen.

Steven Skelton’s book on viticulture – which I’m sure anybody who’s been through the WSET system will be familiar with – argues that if biodynamic wines are of excellent quality (and he doesn’t say they all are), it is because of sound vineyard practices such as restricted yields, the use of animal manures, green harvesting, canopy management, and other TLC activities in the vineyard.

He says that these kid-glove treatments are available to conventional grape growers too and, indeed, are used in many of the top vineyards in the world…

I had the experience once of tasting a range of wines with a producer who had begun to use biodynamics a few years earlier on just one of their plots, Chapelle Chambertin. It stood out in their line up and as soon as I tasted it the lightbulb went on in my head, telling me that these grapes had been grown biodynamically (and the others not).

Otherwise, it is hard to put together any conclusive tests. In the early years of biodynamics at Domaine Leflaive, they farmed part of each vineyard biodynamically and vinified this part separately from that farmed non-biodynamically. I understand that in blind tasting tests there was a noticeable bias in favour of the biodynamics, but I did not try it myself.

I think biodynamic is woo-woo stuff, dancing naked in the light of the moon. Nevertheless, some of the biodynamic producers (Mark Kreydenweiss in Alsace, for instance) make spectacular wines. This may simply reflect the reality that one who practices this technique is, quite coincidentally, paying a very great deal of attention to his crop.

I think that producers are wasting their time and money on steps 2 and 3, and that therefore I should be able to get a similar quality organic wine for cheaper than its biodynamic equivalent.

Difficult to prove anything scientifically, of course, given that wine varies so much depending on the exact position of the grapes – perhpas alternating rows of biodynamic and non biodynamic grapes?