Last week, the Short Cellar discussed Biodynamic wine and how the theory behind it appears to nothing but New-Age pseudoscience invented by occult philosopher Rudolph Steiner. This week, we look at why — in spite all this — Biodynamism is still a good idea.
“What part of it works? I don’t know. But it works,” says Bill Redelmeir, whose Southbrook Winery has recently started releasing Biodynamic certified wine from Niagara. Redelmeir’s theory appears to be that Biodynamism affects the microorganisms involved in the wine-making process. “My ‘Aha!’ moment came in 2008,” he says, “when I realized that good juice leads to a good ferment. Biodynamics makes it healthy for the grapes and healthy for the yeast.” He told me of the first time he stood over a vat of fermenting must from biodynamic grapes, it smelled better and cleaner than it ever had before.
I’m not sure there’s any hard science to back up Redelmeir. There is plenty of evidence that organic agriculture can demonstrably benefit the grape, but there’s been little peer-reviewed research examining what exactly Biodynamics does above organics. One study compared an organic vineyard and a Biodynamic one. The data for this study showed that the soil, leaves and grapes were essentially identical in both. The complete lack of any scientific evidence for Biodynamics infuriates its critics [PDF], but I think they’re approaching the question from the wrong end. The key is how Biodynamics affects the winemaker, not the wine.
Biodynamics attracts winemakers who already have a deep inclination to creativity (two leap to mind, Randall Grahm (pictured above) and André Ostertag). And once such people begin using Biodynamic practices, it encourages them to be even more artistic and intuitive in their approach to farming. “If it is done properly, the practices themselves…strongly seem to encourage a sense of intuition, and more importantly, a greater facility of observation,” Grahm told me. “One is more deeply linked with one’s land.” All the decisions about which Biodynamic potion to use and when to use it force the winemaker to be constantly alive to what his land, grapes and vines are trying to tell him.
One final benefit of Biodynamism is that it encourages a minimalistic approach to winemaking. The goal is to let terroir show through, with a minimum of ham-handed interference in the cellar. “One has the opportunity to produce wines in a much less effected, interventionist manner,” Grahm says. “There’s a lesser need for acidulation, alcohol removal, addition of yeast nutrients, and indeed, addition of cultured yeast.” Less is more; the vines will take care of themselves — this is the cardinal rule of Biodynamics. In this sense, perhaps the most wonderfully beneficial thing in Rudolph Steiner’s magical preparations is that they do nothing at all.
Matthew Sullivan is a civil litigator in Toronto. He blogs weekly here on lawandstyle.ca. The Short Cellar column also appears in the print edition of Precedent. Matthew can be reached at matthew@lawandstyle.beta-site.ca. Follow along on Twitter: @shortcellar.
Photo by Neeta Lind