Organic Wines

You may have not come across the term bio-dynamic wine, but it may be familiar in regard to agriculture and farming. Bio-dynamic farming was a series of practices founded in the 1920s on the ideas of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner. Traditionally, this style of farming was based on the lunar calendar, although in more modern times this has led to controversy. Despite this, the bio-dynamic practices used in vineyards are done with the aim of viewing your plot as an entire eco-system on its own and improving the land on which you farmed, ready for future generations. This idea of self-sustainability is based on all natural products, with no chemicals or pesticides and fertilisation is achieved by a range of animals being left to live on the land.

To help the vineyards grow, natural materials are used, especially regarding fertilisation, as all bio-dynamic vineyards will have animals living on the land to help fertilise and enrich the soil, but ideally, the vineyards should be left predominately to nature and allowed to flourish and create its own ecosystem.

Although it is similar to the practice of organic wine making, there are differences, mainly that unlike organic wine, which is simply produced with organic grapes and no chemicals, bio-dynamic wine is produced by farming practices that include the entire vineyard, following a specific bio-dynamic calendar, usually the lunar cycle, and splitting the farming process into different kinds of days on which planting, pruning and harvesting takes place. These are known as flower days, root days, fruits days and leaf days. Each bio-dynamic farming practice can only take place on certain days.

Although some of the practices do not have scientific proof that a difference can be made to the wine, this type of wine production does benefit the environment and is an excellent example of sustainable practice.