Biodynamic Wine

In Southern California’s booming Santa Barbara County wine country, some grape growers are finding that biodynamics is the way to make the best wine in the most Earth-friendly manner.

Like organics, biodynamics is an all-natural system of farming that eschews chemicals and synthetic fertilizers, but it goes further. Introduced by Austrian physicist Rudolph Steiner in 1924, biodynamics is a codified system to ensure that every input comes from the farm itself: fertilizers, pest control, mulch, everything. Row crops are used to fix nutrients and crowd out weeds.

Deep cultivation loosen soils to reduce water loss through run-off. Stock animals may graze the rows, and their manure is added back into the soil. The cycles of the moon and other planetary bodies are taken into account.

Farms can be certified by Demeter USA, the governing body of biodynamics, or employ the practices without certification. A biodynamic farm is “managed as a living organism” according to Demeter. It is a “regenerative rather than degenerative” farming model.”

Skeptics argue that the techniques are not scientifically proven.

"Science?” says Dan Beckmen of Beckmen Vineyards. “I work and live biodynamics, and I see the results, and that to me is proving it scientifically. We’ve always had big, rustic wines. Now they’re big, balanced and elegant because the ripening is better.”

A few miles away, Doug Braun, proprietor at 30-acre Presidio Vineyards, has an equally practical take on biodynamics. “I’m an in-the-dirt farmer, and if I didn’t think it made a difference, I wouldn’t do it,” he says. “As nice as it is to be environmental, if I could get the same grapes farming with chemicals, I’d probably do it that way.”

Nearby, Deborah Hall at Gypsy Canyon Winery began employing biodynamics in her six acres of vineyards in 2005. One of her products is Angelica, an ambrosial fortified dessert wine made from ancient Mission Grape vines that Hall rescued from decades of neglect by applying some biodynamic TLC.

“When you prune those old vines, they bleed a lot, so I decided to prune them on a descending moon, and there was much less sap,” she says.

Woo-woo weirdness, the cynics sometimes say, to which Hall replies, “It gets woo-woo because it’s about energy and we don’t understand it.”

To find out more about biodyamic farming go to www.demeter-usa.org. And ask your local wine merchant about wines from biodynamic growers like Gypsy Canyon, Presidio Vineyards, Beckmen Vineyards. The biggest U.S. biodynamic grower is Grgch Hills of Napa, which answers a host of questions about biodynamic practices.

– James Badham