Along with the same sustainable practices used in organic winemaking– no pesticides, GMOs, or added sulfites– biodynamics goes a few steps further by treating the vineyard as part of a holistic ecosystem that includes the land, animals, air, and even other planets. Tasks like watering, pruning, and harvesting are done to coincide with cycles of celestial bodies. Homeopathic remedies are used to treat diseases, and soil health is promoted using horse-drawn plows, abundant biodiversity, and less-scientific (and not universally followed) techniques like burying cow horns filled with compost.
Before you assume biodynamics got lost on its way to a Phish concert in Manitou Springs, understand that none of these processes negatively impact grapes. Whether or not they’re directly responsible for making better tasting wine can be debated, but incredible attention to detail and deep understanding of the land are definitively positive practices everyone can get behind. Proponents argue that it offers a sense of terroir you can’t get any other way, and after tasting biodynamic wines from some of the world’s best producers– Bachelet, Roederer, Dujac, Leflaive, Comtes Lafon– it’s hard to argue.
