Quietly Organic

Decanter reports that Agence Bio (France's organic certification label) recently granted, for the first time, organic status to two Bordeaux Grand Cru Classé estates: Chateau Pontet-Canet in Pauillac and Chateau Guiraud in Sauternes.

In fact, Pontet-Canet was Biodynamic back in 2005, wavered during the difficult 2007 growing season, but now is back on its way to Biodynamic certification. And converting to Biodynamic practices is just one element in the long rehabilitation of the Pontet-Canet estate (a neighbour to Lafite-Rothschild and Mouton-Rothschild) since Guy Tesseron took over in 1975. The Tesseron family continues to innovate: the latest is to bring working horses back into the vineyard instead of tractors, with the view that horses cause less damage to the vines.

Pontet-Canet doesn’t make a big deal about being organic or Biodynamic in its marketing...no mention of their certification will appear on the label and you have to review their website carefully to find references to their practices. They know that organic, even Biodynamic, is the way to go and they just get on with it. It's not a gimmick for them.  Perhaps their illustrious neighbours will take note.

To learn more about what Pontet-Canet is up to, check out their video.

Subscribing to this blog through RSS or email is easy! Just click on the subscribe link to the left ←

Tonight is a Good Night to Drink Wine

The latest edition of the wonderful Cellier Magazine (published in both French and English by the SAQ – Société des Alcools du Québec) has a fascinating article about good days and bad days to drink wine. No, I mean good and bad days for the wine.

Regular readers will know that I’m a fan of Biodynamic wines, without necessarily won over by the whole of Biodynamic philosophy.

I’ve heard before that Biodynamics proposes wines will taste better on certain days. According to the Biodynamic calendar, wines are open and show best on “fruit days” and “flower days”. In contrast, wines are closed and flat on “root days”. Older wines show best on “leaf days”.

Go ahead and scoff but, as the Cellier article points out, two huge English wine retailers – Marks & Spencer and Tesco – have wine tastings only on “fruit days”.

The downside? The Biodynamic calendar determines these days by the moon’s phases and astrological influences, so it’s certainly out there. And, unfortunately, the days run in bunches. So, this month, root days (bad) run from the first to the third – whew, that’s out of the way – and then the 10th, 11th, 20th, 21st, 29th and 30th. Maybe that’s Mother Nature’s way of telling us to dry out?

You can buy a Biodynamic wine-drinking calendar (When Wine Tastes Best – 2011) for about $8 from Amazon.ca and there are free Biodynamic calendars on-line (the article cites two sources).

Codswallop? Could be…but who knows? Maybe I’ll start checking the correlation between my less than stellar (yes, pun intended) wine experiences with Biodynamic root days.

And for a sceptic’s view on the moon's effect on wine appreciation, check out Alder Yarrow’s post.

Subscribing to this blog through RSS or email is easy! Just click on the subscribe link to the left ←

Dinner with a Biodynamic Winemaker: Cefalicchio of Puglia

Fabrizio Rossi is not a typical winemaker. (In fact, he doesn’t call himself a winemaker at all.) For a start, he’s an agronomist, with a background broader than viticulture. Fabrizio is also a soft-spoken man, a rarity among winemakers. Like most people who talk little, it’s worth paying close attention when he does talk because he has something interesting to say. And in Fabrizio’s case, he breaks the winemaker mould again in being much blunter about his wines than most winemakers I’ve met, as ready to talk about what didn’t go well as what did.

All this made for an interesting dinner for Michèle and I the other night with Fabrizio Rossi at the restaurant La Roma, featuring the wines of Cefalicchio from northern Puglia. The dinner was part of the Wines of Puglia week, organized by Antonio Mauriello and his DiVino Wine Studio.

Cefalicchio has been the Rossi Family’s estate for more than a hundred years and includes Biodynamic-certified production of wine and olive oil, as well as a hotel and restaurant, spa, and seminars on food and wine. But it’s only since 2003 that they have produced their own wines. (Before that, they turned their grapes over to a local cooperative for winemaking.) Perhaps Fabrizio’s blunt talk about their wines comes easy to him because he understands that experience in winemaking comes slowly over decades and generations, so expecting perfection after 7 years is unrealistic.

Our wine tasting started with the Vigne Alta 2007, IGT Puglia Rosso.  13.0% ABV. Made from 100% Montepulciano and aged in stainless steel. Aromas of sour black cherry, blackberry, dried herbs, and earthiness (mushrooms and wet leaves). With high tannins, the mouthfeel is quite drying and even a bit harsh on the finish. Fabrizio Rossi said that they left the juice on the skins too long during fermentation, which drove the tannin levels higher than they should be. The Vigne Alta was matched with Breaded Mussels baked with basil and lemon. I’m used to eating mussels with white wine but matching these mussels with red wine is typical in Puglia and it works surprisingly well. And the wine was better with the mussels.

Next was Canosa 2007, DOC Rosso Canosa.  13.5% ABV.  Made from Nero di Troia (65%) and Montepulciano (35%). Aged in stainless steel. Aromas of red and black fruits (mostly cherry), dried herbs and minerality. Medium acidity and certainly softer tannins than the first wine and better balanced. Some heat was evident on the nose. Matched with Orecchiette tossed in a tomato sauce with Ricotta cheese (and, I think, some chili peppers). Whatever the hot spice in the pasta dish was, it worked against the wine, pushing the heat up unpleasantly even though the alcohol level was still reasonable at 13.5%.

We moved on to Romanico Reserva 2005, DOC Rosso Canosa.  13.5% ABV. Made from 100% Nero di Troia. Aged in oak for 12 months. It’s wines like this that are turning me into a big fan of Nero di Troia, a variety that is native to Puglia. Nero di Troia was almost lost as a wine-producing grape (it’s difficult to ripen properly and tends to over-produce its foliage) but the Pugliese recently re-established it. Unfortunately, according to Fabrizio, the winemaking methods for Nero di Troia have been lost so it’s back to the starting point in understanding how to make a good wine from these grapes. But Pugliese winemakers are convinced of its potential to produce wines suitable for aging. I found aromas of raspberries at first, yielding to prunes and cooked plums, some floral notes, with hints of orange zest, liquorice, and spices. Good acidity and soft tannins, this wine is well balanced. Matched very well with a generous Braised Lamb Shank with seasonal vegetables, including rapini.

Our final wine was Totila 2005, IGT Puglia.  13% ABV. Made from Nero di Troia (50%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (50%). Aged 6 months in oak. This is what I think of as a “halfway house” wine, made for folks who aren’t quite ready for a Nero di Troia varietal, so they throw in some Cabernet Sauvignon with the Troia for the international market.  Fabrizio tells us that the blend for this wine is the top subject for rainy days at Cefalicchio.  (They have rainy days in Puglia?!)  What's the right proportion of Nero di Troia and Cabernet Sauvignon?  His own opinion is that they should reduce the Cabernet Sauvignon to 30 percent.  Aromas of red cherries and cooked fruits at first from the Troia, then the cassis and fresh herbal notes come in from the Cabernet Sauvignon, with vanilla and cinnamon from the oak. Right down the middle with suede tannins and medium acidity. Very good wine, but I prefer my Nero di Troia uncut. Matched with two cheeses – tangy pecorino and baked ricotta slices – and refreshing iced grapes.

A fun evening with unusual wines and delicious food. The 2005s are better than the 2007s but for a winery that’s less than a decade into producing its own wines, the potential is obvious. Buona Fortuna, Fabrizio e Grazie, Antonio!

Subscribing to this blog through RSS or email is easy! Just click on the subscribe link to the left ←

Vintages Offers “Eco-Friendly” Wines

Vintages is offering a selection of “eco-friendly” wines from eight producers for phone-order. Order now, with a 50% deposit, for delivery this autumn (yes, six months from now). Ugh. Hey, Vintages, don’t get too far out on that green limb.

The term “eco-friendly” is rather vague and Vintages doesn’t define it in the offer. Of the eight producers, here are three that are biodynamic:

• Domaine Weinbach, Alsace
• Benziger, California
• Southbrook, Niagara

Subscribing to this blog through RSS or email is easy! Just click on the subscribe link to the left ←

Viva Emiliana! (Part 2)

In my previous post, I introduced Emiliana Organic Vineyards.  My conversation continues with Fernando Pavón of Emiliana and Liam Doody of Diamond Estates, their agent in most of Canada...

Reviewing Emiliana’s website before sitting down with Fernando, I was struck by the importance that Emiliana places on terroir. New World producers don’t often talk about terroir, except dismissively, perhaps because understanding terroir is something that takes generations. I asked Fernando whether Emiliana’s devotion to Biodynamics accelerates its understanding of terroir. Fernando wasn’t sure whether that was the case or not. Emiliana’s commitment to both Biodynamics and terroir are complementary aspects: It’s the vineyard, and not the winemakers, that drives how the wine expresses itself; the winemakers adapted to the vineyard and the terroir, not the other way around. It’s an Old World approach. Perhaps Biodynamics draws winemakers who believe in “terroir”?

Just as Malbec is now closely identified with Argentina, Chile has its own “signature” varietal: Carmenère. Fernando says that Chilean winemakers are convinced that Carmenère has the potential to make great wines and be a premium-brand varietal. Chilean winemakers look with concern at how the global marketplace perceives Argentinean Malbec. Like Carmenère, Malbec can make great wines. But the market is full of very ordinary Malbec as well. For many consumers, this can be confusing: if there’s an $8 Malbec, how can there be an $80 Malbec? Chilean winemakers want to avoid that confusion for Carmenère, by moving Carmenère-labelled wines into a narrower, higher status space.

We tasted 3 Emiliana wines, released by Vintages earlier in March. Before I get to my tasting notes, something similar struck me with all 3 of these blended wines: each varietal brought its typicity to the blend with enough assertiveness that it was quite straightforward to identify it. I haven’t had that experience very often with blended wines.

EMILIANA NOVAS WINEMAKER'S SELECTION CHARDONNAY/VIOGNIER/MARSANNE 2007, Casablanca Valley (Chile); #63909; Price: $18.95; 15.0% ABV

This is like a trip to a tropical island. Brilliant yellow, aromas of pineapple, mango, pear and ripe peach along with honeysuckle and oaky aromas of almond, butter, and toffee. Full-bodied, it’s luscious, full, and round. Acidity from the Marsanne shows up on the back palate, but not quite enough to balance the richness of the tropical and oak flavours. Good length, the pineapple and pear flavours dominate through the finish. If you like this style, you'll love this wine.  It’s Chardonnay (65%) with a couple of Southern Rhone varietals, Viognier (20%) and Marsanne (15%).

EMILIANA NOVAS LIMITED SELECTION CARMENÈRE/CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2007, Colchagua Valley (Chile); #66746; Price: $14.95; 14.5% ABV

Typical aromas of jammy fruit (blueberry, cassis, black cherry, fig) from the Carmenère (54%), with sweet spice (cinnamon), clove, coffee, and chocolate, and a hint of fresh herbaceousness. The Cabernet Sauvignon (46%) brings some good acidity and there are some suede tannins. Flavours of cassis, black cherry, sweet spice and chocolate. Full-bodied, the richness of the Carmenère fruit dominates at the front, with the suede tannins on the finish. Good length.

EMILIANA NOVAS LIMITED SELECTION CABERNET SAUVIGNON/MERLOT 2007, Central Valley (Chile); #685792; Price: $14.95; 14.5% ABV

This one lets the Cabernet Sauvignon (62%) take the lead. Black cherry and cassis aromas, with some chocolate and spice. Moderate acidity and softer tannins, with flavours of black cherry and chocolate. Full-bodied, it smoother and more restrained than the Carmenère/CS blend.

The bad news? In Ottawa, Vintages is sold out of the Carmenère/CS blend. The quantities of the other two are low but you can still find them in some stores. The really good news? We can expect two more wines (single-varietals) from Emiliana in Ontario later this spring, so keep an eye out for those releases.

To learn more about Emiliana, check out their comprehensive website, especially the Interactive Vineyard.

Subscribing to this blog through RSS or email is easy! Just click on the subscribe link to the left ←

Viva Emiliana! (Part 1)

Friday was an especially chilly day here in Ottawa. So it seemed appropriate to spend some time, over lunch, tasting wines from Chile (yes, I’m sorry) with Fernando Pavón from Emiliana Organic Vineyards and Liam Doody of Diamond Estates. (Thanks to Liam for introducing me to Fernando!) Fernando was in town on a short visit to showcase wines from Emiliana, a producer of biodynamic and organic wines in Chile. Emiliana has vineyards in five valleys, from north to south: Casablanca, Maipo, Cachapoal, Colchagua, and Bio-Bio.

My conversation with Fernando started with what’s on everyone’s mind when we think of Chile these days: the earthquake and aftershocks in late February and into March. Fernando confirmed that damage was extensive and serious; repairs and recovery will take several years. Fortunately, the damage to wineries and wine supplies was not as catastrophic. Most severe was the damage to huge steel storage tanks that were full of wine. As the liquid inside sloshed violently back and forth during the tremor, the tanks could not withstand the force of the rocking liquid. The tanks collapsed, and rivers of wine rolled across winery floors and down the drain. Fernando described those collapsed tanks as if a giant had crushed them like aluminium pop cans. Tanks that were empty also rocked off their moorings, sometimes setting off a domino effect as one tank knocked over another and another. As unfortunate as losing some of the 2009 production was, the earthquake occurred just before the 2010 harvest, and these tanks are critical to the fermentation and storage of the new crop. Winemakers had to scramble to find alternate storage facilities, where possible.

Although Chileans build their infrastructure to withstand earthquakes, some damage also occurred to irrigation systems and traditional buildings made of adobe. But the fallout likely is not as great as first feared. Much of the 2009 wine that was lost was low-end wine. High-end, barrel-aged wine was not as affected. According to Fernando, exports should be relatively untouched. But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be changes. An event like this means financial losses. Yes, insurance will cover the losses, if you have adequate coverage. And deep pockets certainly help. (Emiliana is owned by Concha y Toro, so it has access to deep pockets.) And, like winemakers everywhere, some of the inventory had become “excess” because of the global financial crisis, which saw a decline in wine consumption. But some smaller winemakers, and winemakers who don’t have enough of a financial cushion, will fail. We should see some consolidation in the Chilean wine industry as larger wineries gobble up smaller wineries whose cash flow dries up.

Fernando’s comments reflected the sang-froid that I found typical of the Chileans who I met when I visited there in 2007, “We are a tough people. We’ve had setbacks in the past and always overcame them. We’ll overcome this as well.” Gotta like that spirit!

Emiliana’s wines are all biodynamic or organic. I was curious about marketing organic and biodynamic wines. Can a winemaker who labels a wine as organic or biodynamic demand a higher price? Is it a good idea to segregate these wines in an “organic” section in a wine store (as is the case of the Vintages store where I shop)? Although Emiliana is obviously proud of being biodynamic producers, and they say so on their labels, they’re not convinced that consumers will pay a premium because a wine is biodynamic or organic. They do believe that biodynamic wines are better, and that this quality advantage will pay off with consumers over time. Emiliana does not want its wines tucked away into a special section in the store either. Again, they’re convinced that their wines are simply better and they expect their wines to share shelf-space with all the other wines from Chile. Fernando brought up an interesting point about showing biodynamic certification on the wine label. Emiliana produces all of its wines according to biodynamic principles and practices, but only two wines (at the top end) carry the third-party biodynamic certification on the label. Why? Because the independent body that certifies their wines charges for use of the certification logo on the label. Emiliana would have to charge more to recover those costs (or accept a lower profit). They’d rather forego certification and keep their wines’ prices lower, and more competitive. By the way, Emiliana is perhaps the leader of the biodynamic wine movement in Chile – they had the first certified biodynamic wine in Latin America – and isn’t hesitant about sharing its expertise with other winemakers that are curious about biodynamic practices. Just as Nicholas Joly helped Emiliana’s winemakers, so they help other newcomers.

Next Post:  Tasting Emiliana's wines.

Subscribing to this blog through RSS or email is easy! Just click on the subscribe link to the left ←

Reacting to Climate Change

A while back I wrote about how winegrowers are adjusting to climate change.

As further evidence, Decanter has an interesting article about growers in Italy's Alto Adige.  Some are moving vineyards to higher (cooler) elevations and shifting to a varietal (tempranillo!) that does well in warmer climates.  And some growers there believe that biodynamic methods will help them deal with climate change by achieving higher acidity and lower sugar levels (leading to lower alcohol after fermentation).

Subscribing to this blog through RSS or email is easy! Just click on the subscribe link to the left ←

Digging the Dirt on Terroir

In a recent post about Biodynamics, I wrote that organic grape growers focus on improving soil health, which makes their grapes more reflective of terroir. Well, there’s more to the story.

First, what is terroir? There’s no official definition, but this French term often is translated as “sense of place” and refers to the holistic influence of:

• geology (soil, rocks, minerals)
• topography (altitude, slope, exposure)
• hydrology (water supply & drainage)
• climate (sunlight, temperature, rainfall, sunlight)

How these natural factors interact can contribute significantly to the wine’s aromas, tastes, and textures, depending on the approach of the winemaker. Some winemakers follow the philosophy of having the influence of terroir expressed as much as possible in the wine. Other winemakers decide to wipe out much of the subtleties of terroir, often to match the wine to popular taste.

In response to the post, Liam commented, “Some people think soil has nothing to do with it,” and shared a link to a Decanter article (US geologists challenge 'gout de terroir'). The article briefly summarized a half-day session entitled Terroir -- The Relationship of Geology, Soils, Hydrology, and Climate to Wine at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America. The session featured 12 presentations, concluding with “Winetasting of Terroir Wines”. (Good on these researchers for their dedication to more fieldwork!)

After reviewing the presentation summaries, it seems to me that the researchers agree that terroir exists and influences a wine, but “how” this happens is very complex and, they admit, not yet well-enough understood. The researcher who got the most attention from Decanter, Alex Maltman from Wales, debunks the notion that the taste of minerality in wine relates directly to the minerals in the soil being absorbed through the vines root structure. He does not argue that wine drinkers don’t perceive “minerality” in wine, only that we don't taste minerals from the soil itself.

Chablis is an oft-cited example of a wine whose mineral character matches the soil in which it grows. Chablis vines grow in a mixture of limestone and clay on top of the Kimmeridgean geological formation composed of fossilized oyster shells. This geology has long been reputed to be the cause of Chablis’ traditional minerality and steely, flinty character. The geologists’ work indicates that the source of Chablis’ character is far more complex than the geology alone.

Of course, this is consistent with the source of almost all other aromas and flavours in wine. (We may perceive citrus aromas and flavours in Riesling, but that’s not because the winegrower is spraying lemon juice in the vineyard!) Wines (through terroir, viticulture, and vinification) can express an incredible array of aromatic molecules. Researchers are just at the beginning in understanding how terroir makes its contribution. There are even researchers in France (!) who are working on making a synthetic wine, bypassing the grape entirely.

Where does that leave us with the organic and Biodynamic growers who place such importance on improving the quality of soil in the vineyard? It is important but, no doubt, I am guilty of an oversimplification in stating previously that, “Grapes get a lot of their taste from the type of soil that the vine grows in.” The wine’s character depends on much more than just the soil in which the grapes grow. The very complex interaction among geology, topography, hydrology and climate, along with viticulture techniques and vinification methods, all contribute to the wine’s characteristics. Which of these is the pre-eminent factor, or if there is even a factor that is consistently pre-eminent, remains for the researchers to work out.

If you’re interested in learning more about terroir, I highly recommend Jamie Goode’s excellent articles:

• Mechanisms of Terroir
• Terroir: muddy thinking about the soil
• Terroir Revisited: Towards a Working Definition

Subscribing to this blog through RSS or email is easy! Just click on the subscribe link to the left ←

Bio? Dynamic! Part 2

In my previous post, I looked at what Biodynamic, organic, and natural wines are. Now that we’ve got definitions out of the way, let’s look at why we should be seeking out these wines. What makes these wines better? For me, there are three reasons: distinctive and better taste, they’re better for your health, and it’s better for the environment.

Taste
Grapes get a lot of their taste from the type of soil that the vine grows in. [Oops...this was an oversimplification. See my follow-up post.]  And soil composition can be very individualistic; varying significantly even from the soil in a neighbouring plot. Because the goal is to draw all their nutrients from the soil itself (rather than being fed any synthetic fertilizers), organic vines are more reflective of their specific place (what us wine fans call terroir). If the winemaker then takes a classic Old World approach to vinification, allowing the wine to express what the terroir contributes to the grape, then wines made from organic and Biodynamic grapes reflect a distinctive nose and palate. If like me, you tire of too many wines manipulated to taste the same, and you long for wines that are distinctive, that reflect from where they come, then start looking at organic and Biodynamic wines.

OK, distinctive, but is it better? Lots of blind tastings say, yes! One example. In 2004, Fortune magazine organized a blind tasting of 10 pairs of wines, where the grapes were grown near each other, from the same vintage, one Biodynamic and one conventional. The result? The tasters judged that the Biodynamic wine was better in 9 out of 10 cases: better aromas, flavours, and textures. Over the past 15 years, Biodynamics has become more popular among winemakers who care about making better wines. An accurate count can be hard to come by, but one source lists 529 winemakers in 16 countries using Biodynamic practices, including several high-profile vintners. And the list is growing. Although it’s possible that some growers are jumping onto the Biodynamic bandwagon as a marketing gimmick, many more have gone Biodynamic because their passion is to produce the best wine that they can.

Some critics doubt that Biodynamic practices themselves will produce better wines. Rather, they argue that Biodynamic practices are very painstaking and that’s why the wines are better: these Biodynamic winemakers simply put even more care and attention into growing the grapes and making the wine. Ah, but many wine drinkers don’t care why it works, just as long as we have more wines that are delicious!

Health
Various research studies show that consuming wine in moderation yields health benefits, with one compound, occurring naturally in grape skins, singled out: resveratrol. Researchers link resveratrol to, among other things, improving cardiovascular health and endurance, fighting cancer cells, and slowing aging. For a grape, resveratrol acts as a natural fungus killer. But in vineyards where the vintner uses synthetic fungicides, the grapes produce significantly less resveratrol. Of course, this means that organic and Biodynamic grapes have higher levels of resveratrol. Want more of the benefits of resveratrol? Look for wines made from organic and Biodynamic grapes.

Environmental Responsibility
The debate continues on the toxic effect of pesticides on people, animals, and the environment. It’s clear, though, that organic and Biodynamic viticulture reduces synthetic pesticide, fungicide, and nutrient runoff, simply because growers shun such practices. So if you want to help reduce pesticide levels, support organic and Biodynamic wineries.

So, how do you find these wines? Ask at the store where you buy wine. If they don’t know about organic or Biodynamic wines, find another store. In Ontario, Vintages is doing a good job of identifying organic and Biodynamic wines in their catalogues, and their stores now have a separate (if too small) section for organic wines. Check the back label on the bottle. If a winery uses organic or Biodynamic practices, they’ll want you to know. Many wineries have a website and aren’t shy about telling you about how their grapes are grown and their wines are made. And you can always check back here. If I find one, I’ll let you know!

Organic and Biodynamic practices are no panacea. A winemaker is still at the mercy of the climate and can still mess up in the cellar. But whether you want wines that taste better and distinctive, or you want a greater health benefit from wine, or you want to support winemakers that are using more environmentally responsible practices, keep an eye out for these wines.

Bio? Dynamic! Part 1

I’m always on the lookout for wines certified as biodynamic, organic, or even natural. But what do those terms mean? And why make the effort to look for them?

First off, Biodynamic, organic, and natural are not synonyms, although they do have elements in common.

Organic: Let’s start with organic. Organic viticulture (growing the grapes) avoids the nasty synthetic stuff like fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and anything genetically modified. Organic growers focus on:

• improving the health of the soil, and
• long-term prevention, rather than short-term cure, in dealing with problems.

Organic vintners improve soil health mostly through composting, which boosts water- and nutrient-retention as well as root penetration. Because they draw more nutrients from the soil, the grapes from organic vines should be more reflective of their specific terroir. With rare exceptions (see natural wines, below), organic practices do not extend to winemaking and so winemakers may use sulphites and various non-organic clarification agents. Like most agriculture standards, certification of organic viticulture is generally organized nationally, and so the definition of “organic” can vary from one country to the next.

Biodynamic: Rudolf Steiner developed the concept of Biodynamics in the 1920s. Biodynamics treats the vineyard as a self-sustaining closed system: everything that the vineyard needs comes from within the vineyard. Because it’s self-sustaining, the vineyard usually integrates with other forms of agriculture. Like organics, which is where most Biodynamic growers start, Biodynamics prohibits synthetic stuff. From there, Biodynamics uses specially-prepared homeopathic sprays (made of manure-stuffed horns and horn silica…holy cow!) and compost, preferably generated within the vineyard. These mixtures are applied – OK, this gets a bit weird – based on seasonal, solar, lunar, and astrological cycles. Numerous other practices in Biodynamics seem irrational to many people, including me, and some winegrowers adopt only some of Steiner’s practices. Like organic, there’s a distinction between Biodynamic grapes and Biodynamic wine. A biodynamic wine starts with grapes that are farmed biodynamically, and then winemaker does not use artificial yeasts, or adjust the sugar or acidity. Wines "made from biodynamic grapes" means that a vintner used biodynamically grown grapes, but followed “conventional” techniques in winemaking. The internationally-recognized Demeter Association provides most Biodynamic certifications, although there are rival organizations.

Natural: There’s more buzz lately about “natural” wines. There don’t seem to be any verifiable standards for natural wines, but descriptions include:

• Handpicked, organically or biodynamically grown grapes
• Low-yielding vineyards
• No added sugars, no artificial yeasts
• No fining or filtration
• No adjustments for acidity
• No other additives for mouth-feel, colour, etc
• No micro-oxygenation or reverse osmosis
• Little or no added sulphites

In my next post, we'll look at why these wines are worth seeking out.