Biodynamic Viticulture

Flower heads of dandelion fermented in a cow’s mesentery. This could be an ingredient from an ancient alchemist’s formula, or a recipe from a 7^th Century Scottish cookbook, but it happens to be a recipe for one of the nine “biodynamic preparations” used by those vineyards who apply for biodynamic certification to “stimulate the relationship between silica and potassium so that silica can attract cosmic forces to the soil”. Biodynamic farming is completely inaccessible to modern scientific analysis, and is an eclectic mixture of eastern philosophy, homeopathic medicine (a since completely debunked 19^th century therapeutic system), and biochemistry as it was thought of 150 years ago.

I’m not going to say whether I do or don’t think there is value to it. Like religious belief, it’s outside the arena of rational analysis, but some very serious and respected winemakers do believe in it, and believe in it fervently enough to risk large sums of money and valuable reputations testing the concept in American fields. Companies like Benziger, and Grgich Hills and Napa’s premier estate, Opus 1.

I recently spent a very pleasant hour discussing the principles of organic and biodynamic winemaking with the very knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff of Grgich Hills Cellar in Rutherford.  I want to thank these folks for their patience on a busy day. To the extent that biodynamics is a religion, their tasting room was staffed by converts, and they can harangue, pleasantly, like doorbell ringing missionaries. I was shown how to pack cow horns with cow dung (they have to be organic cows) to be buried in moonlight. It’s easy to picture a druid Bacchanal complete with naked pouristas.

Biodynamics was first introduced by Rudolf Steiner, a turn of the century Austrian who published an influential book in 1924. It was rediscovered and gained popularity in France, where Nicolas Joly began to communicate the ideas more widely abroad. Persons interested should consult the Demeter Association web site, or www.biodynamics.com, to get the best references. My knowledge is way too superficial. There are also much less arduous organic standards for making wine, and all biodynamic operations conform to them. There is as yet no expert consensus on whether biodynamic methods make better wine, but you bet complying with the standards runs up the price, so they won’t be around long unless the public becomes convinced it’s better.

I tried to get specific information about what effects the various standards have on production, but the Grgich folks demurred, saying only that the yields per acre would “obviously” be a bit lower. Of course they have to cut down the vines on the edges of fields that border other vineyards, to plant buffer zones of “pest resistant” foliage, here olive trees, so that can’t help. One comment they did make was that shifting to a certified organic operation is relatively easy, and consists largely of switching fertilizer and pesticide brands to allowable ones, and composting the leaf trimmings. I didn’t ask a burning question, namely how we know an allowable fertilizer or pesticide is safer than the ones used on the field up the street. It would be argumentative, and would go back to “the FDA says so”, which of course they also say about the non-organic ones.

One brief word about Grgich Wine. They still offer a Fume Blanc, a style of Sauvignon Blanc not seen much since my college years, and something I’ve sought for everywhere. At $22 a bottle this is a pricey offering, but the taste is exactly as I remember, crisp, tart and very refreshing without a hint of malolactic change. Indeed, it is a one-step fermentation. It turns out Mr. Grgich invented this wine style along with the folks at now defunct Almaden. His descendents are clearly still the masters.

And another thing about Grgich. So far they haven’t even used their certification stamp on their labels, and their web site barely mentions the process. One doe-eyed young lady behind the counter said “You wouldn’t do all this, just for the money”. And maybe Grgich wouldn’t, but Benziger now has a $15 tram ride touring their biodynamic operation and explaining the process in detail. They tout biodynamic souvenirs. We’ll see.