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Organic and biodynamic wines. Organic and bio wines (bio wine): concept, advantages and disadvantages Biodynamic winemaking

The craving for nature and ecological cleanliness gave rise to biodynamics, an agrarian trend born in the 1920s. Winemakers became its most active supporters.

In vino veritas

Winemaking is by no means a profitable business at all times, it is a real philosophy, say adherents of the trend of biodynamics, popular in the new century.

The linguistic meaning of the term is "life force". This direction is based on the principle of self-regulation of the vineyard. In fact, the role of people in the process of wine production, and in particular, the cultivation of grapes, comes down to delicate assistance to nature, respect for place and time, observance of biological rhythms, patience and attention to the world around. A person should not persistently interfere in the natural ecological balance, on the contrary, nature in all its manifestations becomes the key concept.

The main feature of biodynamic wines is, of course, their honesty, that is, the exact transfer of the taste of grapes from a given territory (terroir) and in a given harvest year. Biodynamic winemaking produces authentic, natural, lively wines, reflecting their expressiveness and flavor richness. The still small world of biodynamic viticulture is rich in talents and amazing, ingenious wine. Here they are, the best representatives of biodynamic winemaking:

Alsace: the legendary Domaine Marcel Deiss; Domaine Zind Humbrecht.
Loire Valley: Coulee de Serrant by Nicolas Joly, the ideologue of the movement who claims that biodynamics is, above all, quality farming; Muscadet Sevre et Maine by Guy Bossard (Domaine de l'Ecu).
Burgundy: Domaine des vignes du Maynes, whose red wine Manganite and white Argonite have for many years deserved the characteristics of fresh, original, elegant. By the way, the vineyards of this farm were first planted by the Benedictine monks of Cluny Abbey in 910 and have never been treated with chemicals since.

Champagne: Champagne Fleury, owned by Jean Pierre Fleur, was named winemaker of the year by the prestigious GaultMillau rating, while Blanc de Blancs champagne won two stars and recognition from the 2006 Hachette des Vins wine guide.

Austria: the national pride of the Nikolaihof of the Wachau.
Italy: the Corte Pavone estate in Toxana, where the fanatical Rainer Loaker creates, who, according to the laws of bioarchitecture, built a unique cellar from stones taken from the vineyard in order for the wine to mature in a familiar environment. It is he who claims that wine has a soul.

Here is an incomplete list, because there are no less worthy wineries in Germany, Slovenia, Chile, California, Spain, New Zealand, Australia...

Esoteric against chemicals
What is the reason for such a flourishing of biodynamic winemaking in the 21st century? History tells us the answer. Since its inception, viticulture has been biological in nature. Almost until the middle of the last century, agriculture knew only organic fertilizers. Bordeaux liquid (copper sulfate) was the main remedy for fighting diseases. Destroying pests, the chemical simultaneously dealt a blow to the ecosystem.

The result of this intervention is a drop in productivity. Obviously, the next generation of vine growers were excited about the advent of insecticides, which made it easier to work in the vineyards. At the same time, it was necessary to eliminate the grass cover in the vineyards, which disrupted the water supply of the root system of the vine. The matter was aggravated by the appearance of "clones" - vines with increased resistance to diseases.

The invention of synthetic enzymes completely perverted the essence of winemaking! It became possible to produce wine with the specified parameters of color, aroma and taste. Now no one is surprised that wine comes with the smell of strawberries, bananas or exotic fruits: the desire to get consumers in new regions sometimes pushes winemakers to blasphemous experiments. The unique features of this or that chateau can suddenly be found in cheap Chilean or South African wine.

Thanks to such achievements in biochemistry and breeding, the yield and profitability of farms have reached the desired heights. The logical consequence of half a century of experimentation with nature was the general standardization of wines, which ultimately resulted in the loss of wine individuality.
The winegrowers of the 80s of the last century were much less concerned about issues of economic survival. Having received an excellent education in oenological schools, progressive professionals actively supported the movement for the improvement of the environment, which had become relevant by that time. This period gave rise to the emergence among winemakers adherents of methods of biodynamic cultivation of grapes and wine production.

Biodynamics is based on the principles of the theory of the scientist Rudolf Steiner. They prohibit the use of chemical synthesis products and oblige the use of natural substances in vineyards. Some of them are added in their natural form: various herbal infusions and organic fertilizers. Others are more esoteric symbols, such as a cow's horn filled with dung and buried in a vineyard on a full moon. It is believed that this stimulates the growth of the vine. It is also interesting that growers follow the phases of the moon to determine the beginning of an agricultural operation or the stage of vinification.

The modern approach to biodynamics was developed by the German agronomist Maria Thun. The sphere of her attention is the influence of the rhythms of solar flares and the movement of planets on plant life. The "magical" aura of biodynamics did not prevent her from acquiring a huge army of followers, many of whom work in very reputable farms. Created in 2001 by the already mentioned ideological leader of biodynamic winemaking, Nicolas Joly, the association La Renaissance des Appellation now has 120 winemakers from 12 countries who profess the principles of biodynamics.

Self-adjusting system
The main philosophical idea of biodynamic winemaking is to maintain the energy balance of earthly nature and space. The work of the winemaker is aimed at reorganizing the magnetic field of the terroir (territory for growing grapes), using biological additives from minerals and plants available on the farm as a fertilizer. This is manual labor - shallow selective plowing. Sheep grazing in the aisle is also welcome. The harvest is collected in 2-3 passes, perfectly ripe berries are selected, the method of gravity or very gentle pressing is often used.

Winemakers approach vinification very delicately. So, for example, fermentation takes place using only natural local yeast. For wine aging, preference is given to barrels of new wood, lightly charred, which makes it possible to limit the influence of oak tannins on the quality of wine.

There are no trifles here - even the winery building in such a farm is built in compliance with the classical rules of architecture, taking into account the angle of incidence of the sun's rays, the golden section of the foundation and other tricks. And one of the points of the methodology says: “real” wine is bottled during the waxing moon.”

Of course, biodynamic wines are more expensive than conventionally produced wines. On average, they are 15–20% more expensive, because manual labor is used to create it. Like in the good old non-technogenic times.

So, we have a choice: we can prefer the clear and familiar taste of inexpensive industrial wine, or we can drink true, real wine. However, it is clear that, apart from biodynamics, no other modern winemaking technique can offer a purer, healthier product. And you can't argue with that.

Larisa Korobkova

What is organic wine?

Several types of wine fall under the status of organic at once, and this component is far from being the main one in all of them. Actually, organic means the use of only natural fertilizers. In addition, before applying the coveted organic logo on the label (a single EU certificate, French Agriculture biologique, German Ecovin and Bio, American USDA Organic), the winemaker needs to confirm the biochemical purity of the land (at the same time, you can plow on a tractor and harvest grapes with a special combine). By and large, organic matter is only evidence of the ecological well-being of the vineyard.

What about biodynamic?

Biodynamics is a doctrine that grew out of the lecture course "Spiritual and scientific foundations for the successful development of agriculture" by Rudolf Steiner. With regard to wine, this includes caring for the vineyards by the phases of the moon, walking a horse with a plow, friendship with birds and insects, homeopathic fertilizers for the vine - No. 500 (dung aged in a cow horn) and No. 501 - (quartz aged in a cow horn) . Biodynamists have their own certifications (Demeter, Biodyvin). All biodynamic wines are a priori organic, but this is not the main thing in them, but the production process, harmonized with cosmic forces.

So, how about natural then?

In the case of natural wines, also a priori organic, the emphasis is on the natural course of the winemaking cycle and the minimum intervention of the winemaker in this process. It includes gentle care of the vineyard, hand-picking grapes, fermentation with natural yeast, no preservatives and, above all, sulfur dioxide - a classic preservative that prevents bacterial contamination of wine. "Natural" winemakers also have their own bottle badges, such as Nature & Progrès, although these are rare.

It should be understood that sometimes wine falls under all three categories at once, or even under some fourth. The most odious example in this sense is wines for vegans.

Catharsis - vegan wine

And you thought all wines were vegan because they were made from grapes? And here it is not. Wine production is a technologically long and varied process, it has a place for a variety of operations. The purpose of the so-called fining is to stabilize and clarify the wine. This requires an absorbent that would absorb all the sediment. Usually, substances of animal origin are used for this. Casein (milk protein), albumin (bovine blood), gelatin (collagen, animal bones) and, the most old-school option, egg white. Vegan-friendly options remain bentonite (clay) or laborious and slow wine filtration as alternatives. Some of these wines are certified.

Petnates and carbonic maceration

Wine producers of all styles of interest to us have their favorite "form factors" due to the peculiarities of production technology. This is especially true for those who are interested in more natural wines - here they love carbonic maceration (a special type of fermentation in closed vats, which once gained popularity in connection with Beaujolais Nouveau), orange wines (hello Georgia) and petnates: petillant naturel, they are also PetNat, sparkling produced by the “old-fashioned method”, méthode ancestrale, which has existed as long as wine is bottled, since the second half of the 17th century: the Benedictines from Limou poured still unfermented wine into bottles, where it fermented further, giving bubbles and sediment . In a word - read counter-labels more often. Or talk more to your favorite bars, wine people love to talk too. Below are the most suitable places for such conversations from our point of view.

Big Wine Freaks and Max's Beef for Money

Two Real Authentic Wine Restaurants

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Maxʼs Beef, historically the first place in Moscow with a natural map, still has a good selection of petnates and oranges. The first, low-alcohol and not too sparkling, ideal on weekend mornings: German 2Naturkinder from the Silvaner variety, Austrian Fuchs und Hase, PetʼNat Vol 5, a blend of Grüner Veltliner and Welschriesling from Kamptal, sparkling pignoletto Sui Lieviti from the Vigneto San Vito winery in Emilia - Romagna. The second is a more languid and evening version: muscat from Roussillon Jolly Ferriol Nature M. or a Friulian blend of chardonnay, pinot gris and sauvignon blanc Radikon Oslavje.

In the flagship Big Wine Freaks, in addition to a large selection of exotics by the glass, for some time now natural can also be found under Coravin, a device that allows you to keep bottles open for a long time, including Jura wine from Champs Poids from Jean-Francois Ganev, orange Timotheus Weiss from Gut Oggau. There are also naturalists in the champagne section - Agrapart, Olivier Horiot, David Léclapart. There are even natural wines from the USA - Oregon's Kelley Fox and California's Elizia. Both restaurants, as well as the one located door to door with Big Wine Freaks "natural store" (from 1000 r per bottle), are directly related to the wine trading company.

barrel

Wine bar from Ryumochnaya in Zyuzino

At first, this place at the Winzavod caused fears: would the creators of , one of the most reckless alcohol establishments in the city, which turned the theme of Soviet and post-Soviet alcoholism into art, succeed in joining a difficult, completely differently organized wine history. Everything turned out largely due to the bet on wine exotics that can impress the neophyte. Natural wines are part of this program. The most impressive thing here in this regard is the Chilean País Salvaje from wild grapes. There are also Alsatian Rieslings from biodynamist Pierre Frick and Dorabella, a sulfur-free pulsar from Jura. The interior is neatly stuffed into real wine storage vats, and round holes in the ceiling, into which lamps are mounted, are actually hatches.

Tokyo

Vegan organic and biodynamic wine at the same time

A seemingly ordinary sushi bar almost opposite the Conservatory suddenly turns out to be a godsend for fans of tracking international wine trends in city maps. To store the wines selected by Vlada Lesnichenko, a transparent personalized humidor was created in the hall, in which there is a place for everything - biodynamics, natural wines, and even more. As you know, the line between organics and biodynamics can be quite thin: one often does not exclude the other, and sometimes the third. Take, for example, Australian winemaker Dave Paxton and his AAA Organic Shiraz Grenache, a wine that is both organic and biodynamic. It would seem that much more - but not only. It's also vegan.

"Wine Bazaar"

Organics on Bolshaya Sadovaya

In the Bazaar on Sadovaya there is always something to choose from petnates. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon petnate from the already mentioned Jolly Ferriol winery from Roussillon, or something from the Fanny Adams line - the fruit of a joint project of Vladimir Basov's wine trading company with Crimean winemaker Pavel Shvets. For example, Rose Arms, a pink petnate made from Kokura, Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon. As for the non-sparkling ones, given the constantly changing weather, there are two options. On cool natural days, you should pay attention to a sulfur-free wine called Paeriza from one of the strangest wineries in La Mancha Samuel Cano, whose bouquet in the glass develops from tones of berries to bright notes of smoked meats. A more "sunny" option is Raisins Gaulois from Gamay and carbonic maceration guru Marcel Lapierre. Other Wine Bazaars have a smaller selection of organic and natural wines.

William's

Natural and biodynamic in a secret map

Here biodynamics and natural wines are part of a large and complex program. “We share with our guests what we love ourselves. Therefore, there are biodynamics, natural and organic in the map. Not because it's fashionable, but because it's delicious and doesn't hurt your head. The map is frequently updated because drinking the same thing is tiring. Now we are launching a special secret map in which #people V The topic will find various rare things, but many wines from the main list come to the Russian Federation in small quotas,” says Evgeny Kovalenko, chief sommelier.

From Evgeny's point of view, biodynamics and natural wines are, first of all, fun: “Lluerna Els Vinyerons is “grandma's compote”, and grandmother's compote is always great. Unlitro Costa Toscana Rosso Ampeleia - Tuscany, but drunk like juice. Liter. Liter pack of juice. Invigorating juice. Ambonnay Rouge by Andre Beaufort is an elegant piece. Wine does not stand still for a minute - the ongoing evolution in the glass. Silent Champagne is always interesting. Contadino by Frank Cornelissen never order! Never order if you like lowland Sicilian wine! Etna is not Sicily. But the pleasure is immeasurable.”

"Pies, Wine and Goose"

Organics and biodynamics not marked on the map, they say, you will understand

In some ways the most unexpected place on the list. The ironic cuisine of Alexander Zhurkin, as it follows from the name rich in associations, repels, on the one hand, from a simple Russian pie, on the other, from farm goose. Wine at the same time here is under the jurisdiction of Anton Panasenko, one of the most knowledgeable domestic sommeliers in the entire short history of this profession with us. Of course, Panasenko, who started back in the late 1990s (like, by the way, Vladimir Basov from RAW, as well as winemaker Pavel Shvets - they are all from the legendary "catfish" of the first wave), it is difficult to surprise with anything, especially biodynamics, because he began working with her many years before the current boom.

“We have plenty of such wines,” says Anton, but they are on the map not because of this boom, but because they are interesting in themselves, and not because of the production method. We do not highlight them on the map. For me, it is not important how this or that wine was made, but whether this wine is good. Just as for me, nationality, religious views and social status of someone are not important - if only a good person! And whoever chooses wines precisely on this basis will find them in our map with his trained eye.” On our own, we dare to recommend something like Chianti Classico by Querciabella, a winery that is vegan, biodynamic and organic at the same time, while their wines have been organic for thirty years.

I Like Wine/I Like Wine 2.0

Organic, natural and biodynamic

“We are interested in working with this segment,” says Elena Lebedeva, chief sommelier. - Since we bring the topic of wine to the masses, we talk about it, introduce it, make it fall in love with it. Natural wines are different, they are alive, what kind of wine will actually turn out - you will know only when you open the bottle. We try to immediately pour these wines into the caraf to give it more freedom and air for a full discovery. If you start to figure out who still produces organics, who still produces biodynamics, then in most of the wine list there will be both, it’s just that not everyone talks about it, not everyone shouts, moreover: many winemakers belong to the mentioned categories according to by default. But natural wines are definitely a separate category that requires explanation and immersion.”

Indeed, there is plenty to choose from in all three categories: we can safely recommend paying attention to such wines as the rare Auxerrois variety performed by the main Alsatian avant-garde artist Pierre Frick, unfiltered orange traminer from old vines with the telling name Mit Achtung from Lower Austria, nero davola from the main Sicilian "naturalist" Arianna Occhipinti.

Twins Wine Space/Wine & Crab

Wine bar with food by the Berezutsky brothers

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Opened in St. Regis at the beginning of the summer Twins Wine Space is as close as possible to the format of a wine bar from all the team's projects. As usual, the map, although smaller in volume than in other places, is still balanced and traditional in the best sense of the word. It seems that there is plenty of biodynamics here, but this is such biodynamics that does not scream about itself either with loud labels or an abundance of certificates. Konstantin Nosach, sommelier of Twins Wine Space and Wine & Crab: “The wine list of Twins Wine Space is built on the classics. As for natural products, I can cite as an example one rather rare position - a quiet rosé wine from the Champagne region, from the commune of Côte de Bar, from the winemaker Olivier Orio, a representative of one of the oldest Champagne wine families. For a long time they sold their grapes, since 2000 they began to make still wines, and since 2004 - champagne. They make about ten thousand of all cuvees. In Russia, the quota is 180-200 bottles per year. We will be adding items like this to the map in the future, but based on our usual policy, we will only take the rarest and most valuable items on the market.”

Blush Wine Bar

The most inexpensive of all the places on the list (thank you!)

Blush, which opened this summer in Daev Pereulok, has finally turned Sretenka into the most actively developing wine route in the city. The name - in honor of one of the types of rose wines. The owner of the establishment is Daniil Shitov. The place was created with the participation of Sergey Antonov, widely known in narrow wine circles, aka "Village Sommelier", who took part in the opening of the first "Wine Bazaars", Wine & Crab and many other proper wine places not only in Moscow, but also, for example, in Tambov.

The card is divided into price categories for the cost of a bottle: 890 rubles, 1250 rubles, 1600 rubles, 2150 rubles. and 2800 r. for a bottle. Any ten of them can be opened and sold by the glass randomly throughout the day for 230 rubles, 370 rubles, 480 rubles, 610 rubles, including organics with biodynamics - Tuscan red, unfiltered and Nero wild yeast del Gobo by Camigliano of Sangiovese Syrah, Merlot and white Vermentino, a similar wild Austrian Gruner by Georg Schneider, and the already mentioned Chilean Pais Salvaje, one of the strangest wines on the market.

website“I remember my shock five years ago,” writes culinary expert Elena Chekalova on the TASS portal. At the trendy Copenhagen restaurant Relae, my husband and I ordered red Burgundy wine for dinner and received a strange bottle with an even weirder handwritten label. But the strangest thing was its contents: some kind of potion, as if a wild genie had escaped from the bottle!

- What is this? I asked the waiter.

This is biodynamic Burgundy, he replied.

- Can I replace it with a normal one? I asked.

To my horror, having bypassed all the most famous restaurants of the Danish gastronomic Mecca, I stumbled everywhere exclusively on these seemingly unfermented or fermented wines without any pleasant aftertaste for me, and even from 50 euros per bottle. Why on earth should I pay more for a biodynamic Burgundy than for a traditional fine and balanced Burgundy? I was not convinced by the talk of exclusivity, small batches and hand-picked grapes, but most of all I was infuriated by the ranting that natural, they say, should be annoying.

In Noma, the star of world gastronomic ratings, I was answered almost rudely to another groan: real seasonal food should be accompanied by real wines, and if you don’t want, we can pour you natural juices - from elderberry, for example. No, the truth, of course, is in wine (in vino veritas), but then for the first time I learned that there are some new truths in wine that I have not yet caught up with.

Two years later, I fell in love with Parisian gastrobistros with their amazingly creative dishes. But the same biodynamic madness reigned in them. And then for the first time I tried the so-called orange wines: I suddenly liked a very unusual, intense taste and simply bewitched their color, deep amber. It turned out that this is also biodynamics.

Gradually, I began to find interesting red and white biodynamic wines on the menu of gastropubs. And, most importantly, I understood why biodynamics is so sweet to bistro lovers: as one of my favorite chefs, Jean-Francois Piège, says, “it is important to prove not that you are the best in the world, but that you have the right to always be yourself.”

How did these strange winemakers manage to “pump up” the whole world in such a way? I answer those questions that I once asked myself and did not receive clear answers.

Biodynamic wine - what is it?

It is a product of biodynamic agriculture, which, according to the official definition, proclaimed a "spiritual-ethical-ecological approach to agriculture, gardens and food production."

In other words, biodynamics is not only non-aggressive ways of managing the economy that do not harm the earth and nature, but also a whole philosophy of life.

Who came up with all this?

The author of the term “biodynamics” is an Austrian philosopher, writer, architect and mystic Rudolf Steiner. In the early 1920s, he gave several lectures to farmers who wanted to restore their farms as soon as possible after the First World War.

The listeners complained to the lecturer that the then newfangled methods of cultivating the land with pesticides did not bring the expected results. Steiner offered his own way of healing the earth. The farm, he preached, is a complex organism in which everything is interconnected, and at the same time it is part of the universe.

If the plant is sick, this is a sign of a failure of the whole organism. Ideally, the farm should be a self-sustaining system that produces its own fertilizer and animal feed. And in order for the world energy to come to her aid, it is necessary to coordinate crops, weeding and harvesting with the rhythms of the moon and planets.

For every task - pruning, watering, harvesting - there is a better day in the lunar calendar. Steiner was a holist: he believed that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. "Treat" the soil, he said, is possible only with natural, specially made additives - extracts from horsetail, nettle, yarrow and other herbs.

And the most effective preparation should be prepared as follows: on the day of the autumn equinox, the cow's horn must be filled with manure and buried in the ground, and on the spring equinox, dig up and dissolve the compost obtained in it in water in order to irrigate the plants with new vital energy. Steiner outlined all these thoughts in the work “Spiritual and scientific foundations for the successful development of agriculture”, published in 1924.

Throughout the 20th century, this work was either ridiculed or admired. But by the end of the last century, Steiner definitely became the idol of some European winemakers. Nicolas Joly was the first in France to transfer his vineyards in the Loire Valley to biodynamics and achieved the fantastic quality of Les Vieux Clos and especially Clos de la Coulee de Serrant wine (in Russia, a bottle of the latter costs about 10,000 rubles).

How is biodynamic wine made?

I managed to visit the winery of the cult Italian biodynamist Joshka Gravner(the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region on the border with Slovenia), and he himself showed me everything and told me.

Yoshka immediately drew my attention to the birdhouses and the pond next to the vineyard: it is very important that there are many birds that clean the vines from insects, and that the air is naturally moist - after all, there can be no irrigation or other artificial interventions, the vine must work on its own , day and night extracting water.

I have not used fertilizers, pollination, medicines and nothing added to the wine for twenty years - explains Gravner. - Fertilizers for vines and additives for wine are like drugs for people: at first it seems to give strength, but then it kills. When I was young, I foolishly used antibotrites, but after all, grapes must fight mold themselves - you can help quite a bit by removing what interferes. In addition, there is a noble mold, which only deepens the taste of berries. And of course, no clarification is needed, no powerful wine presses, no equipment at all, except for an elementary small tractor. In nature, everything works as in man. There is an angel and a devil. We must be careful that the devil does not get the upper hand. If you kill the red spider, the enemy of the vineyard, you will also kill its rival at the same time. It is important to maintain a balance without chemistry.

- But do you add sulfur?

You have to be smart about everything. Future wine needs a very tiny amount of powdered sulfur, which we mix with propolis. In this way, a natural antibacterial and stabilizing agent is obtained. There is more sulfur in vegetables, in fish, in water, in juices, than in my wine. We also use little copper, less than half the usual dose. But the main thing is completely different. True winemaking begins with a fundamental understanding: the vineyard and wine are two inseparable parts of one whole. Wine must be grown like a vine - day by day. It grows with the vine even before the berries appear. A good winemaker is close to the vines every day: to understand the plants, to feel them, to remove the excess.

Gravner, like all biodynamists, is convinced that the main work with good wine is not in the winery, but in the vineyard. Because wine is a child. It needs to be conceived, given birth, helped to grow stronger and educate, but not to be controlled every minute. It is more important to understand not what you should do with it, but what you should not do.

During the growth cycle, do not introduce chemicals that damage the balance of the ecosystem, do not use invasive sprays or herbicides. You have to make friends with thick fogs and learn to recognize the danger, you have to be able to wait and look carefully at the vineyard every day to notice any nuance and ask yourself: is today the right day?

And as soon as the wine goes to the cellar, human intervention is completely unacceptable. All this is called “doing nothing” in biodynamics: study your region, observe the vineyard and nature, follow it, do not destroy the ecosystem, minimize the mechanical impact on the vine and berries, do not change the wine, do not pollute, do not rush it, do not interfere in its development. Then the time will come, and the wine will be opened to you in a glass.

On the business card of Nicolas Joly it is written: "Helper of nature, not a winemaker."

And what's with the cow horn?

A considerable, if not most, part of winemakers and wine critics look at biodynamics with skepticism: they say that there is no scientific basis under it. As the clearest example of the madness of biodynamists, everyone certainly cites the very burying of a cow's horn with manure, the so-called "drug 500". Frenchman Nicolas Joly explains:

90% of what is born in the vineyard is the result of photosynthesis. The essence of wine is in the harmony of light, water and earth. The task of the winemaker is to achieve the harmony of the elements in his vineyard. Biodynamics is not a set of recipes, but a study of practices that help to embody natural forces in grapes. Manure is also such a lever of vitality.

According to the Biodynamie Services website, "Product 500" is a powerful tool that "stimulates soil microbial activity, regulates pH, promotes seed germination, and dissolves minerals."

When I asked about the "horn" of the Crimean biodynamist Pavel Shvets, he spread his hands:

“Yes, and I also bury it - maybe it's strange, but it works. There is something mystical about wine.”

Do biodynamic wines taste very different from regular ones?

Often people feel: this is some kind of unusual wine. At first, I don't like it. The appearance is also alarming: whites are cloudy, and reds are often less transparent. Surprising smells: intense, sometimes even wild. But the more you drink them, the more you become attached and you begin to appreciate their roughness and emotionality. As Nicolas Joly says, biodynamics are the fault of open feelings, they reveal the character of the winemaker no less than the terroir.

Among my favorites are the wines of the Austrian estate Gut Oggau in Burgenland. The vineyard, which is kept by one family, consists of small plots. Each one has its own name, and the grapes from each are vinified separately. The result is nine wines named after fictitious characters - members of a fictitious family. Their “portraits” are on the labels of nine bottles of Gut Oggau.

The “people-guilt” project is the best visualization of the specificity of biodynamics: such bright personalities cannot please everyone. But for those who become attached to it, ordinary, even very high-quality wines begin to seem too smooth and not alive enough.

Why is biodynamic wine more expensive than regular wine?

The process of making biodynamic wine is almost exclusively manual labor, which is much more expensive than machine, and winemaking, inscribed in natural cycles, requires much more time.

And biodynamic wine, organic, natural - is it all the same?

Not really.

In the production of all these wines, they try not to use chemicals. However, organic winemaking is not bothered by natural cycles and cosmic philosophy.

“Naturals” also don’t philosophize much, but at the same time they are even more rigorists: “no” is declared even to sulfur, which has been used as a preservative since Antiquity. Because of this, “natural wines” are unstable and difficult to transport.

How many such biodynamists are there in the world?

Now there are about 750 biodynamist manufacturers in the world, and there are more of them every year. According to Nicolas Joly, when the first of them started, the neighbors laughed at them, considered them sectarians and lunatics. And ten years later they began to ask questions - what and how.

Where can you buy and taste biodynamic wines from us?

In online stores. There is a Russian company that specializes in these wines - RAW (Real Authentic Wine). She holds festivals, supports restaurants and bars with biodynamic wine lists. At first, such establishments were opened in St. Petersburg: Big Wine Freaks, “Na vina!”, Beef Zavod. Now there are Big Wine Freaks in the capital, as well as Max’s Beef for Money, and biodynamic positions are increasingly appearing on the wine lists of other establishments. Ask - and you will certainly find.

Elena Chekalova.
TV presenter, gastronomic columnist, author of three best-selling books about world cuisine.

Translated from Greek, the term biodynamics means "life force". It is indisputable that life on our planet would be impossible without solar energy, and the influence of the moon and the planets of the solar system is still underestimated. Animals are more susceptible to natural and cosmic rhythms than people, and plants live thanks to them.

What is biodynamics?

Biodynamics is an agricultural philosophy, a feature of which is the attitude to the Earth as a living organism, as well as the use of technologies for controlling the forces of nature and space to obtain environmentally friendly products of exceptional quality. According to this philosophy, the winemaker lives in complete harmony with nature and space.

Founder of biodynamics

The founder of biodynamics is the Austrian Rudolf Steiner, who at the beginning of the 20th century developed a whole theory about the loss of sensory knowledge of nature by modern man. So, in the teachings of Dr. Steiner, much was said about the harm caused by the unlimited use of chemicals, as a result of which the soil and plants lose their connection with nature and lose their natural immunity. Such plants are not beneficial to humans, as they do not have positive energy. Dr. Steiner and his ideological followers began to preach biodynamic agriculture, because in order to get a healthy harvest, it is necessary to act in harmony with nature and space, taking into account their cycles, without destroying the balance and increasing the energy of plants by harmonizing the nutritional balance of the earth with natural fertilizers.

In winemaking, the principle of biodynamics began to be applied in the 70s of the 20th century. Recently, biodynamic winemaking has increased significantly, which is beneficial both for the planet as a whole and for people. The practice of biodynamic winemaking is popular in countries such as France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy, Australia, Chile, South Africa, Canada, and the United States.

Features of biodynamic winemaking

Biodynamist winemakers use soil loosening and the sowing of certain herbs, due to which the activity of certain soil bacteria is activated, thus increasing the natural vitality of the grapes against pests and diseases. Also, biodynamists use various types of organic composts, cow dung and homeopathic preparations that go through the process of dynamization (activation of vitality) with the help of long stirring. In biodynamics, much attention is paid to the connection of plants with the movement of the planets and the phases of the moon, given the seasonality of which, it is possible to determine with accuracy what work needs to be done at what time, increasing its efficiency.

Grown in harmony with nature, a strong vine produces quality grapes that best reflect the properties of the terroir, the region in which it grew. In bio-winemaking, every nuance matters, even when building a biodynamic winery, the angle of incidence of the sun's rays is taken into account. Wine House Grgich Hills Estate, which produces high quality biodynamic wines, switched completely to solar photovoltaic panels in 2006, thus benefiting from the same energy that ripens their organic and biodynamic certified organic grapes.

In the production of biodynamic wines, any artificial additives are excluded, natural yeasts are used in the fermentation process, for example, for a five-week fermentation of Grgich Hills Estate Cabernet Sauvignon wine, unique natural yeasts are used, which give the wine an exceptional aroma. When creating wine Grgich Hills Estate Chardonnay grapes are not subjected to malolactic fermentation, resulting in a lively wine with excellent acidity.

The maturation of bio wines takes place in new oak barrels. Bottling is carried out only during the growing moon. It is believed that open bio wine retains its aromatic and taste characteristics much longer.

What is biodynamics?

Founder of biodynamics

Features of biodynamic winemaking

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