Organic, Sustainable & Biodynamic Wines

I’ve been seeing more wines labeled “Sustainable”, “Organic” and “Biodynamic.” (And just when I finally learned that Petite Syrah isn’t a tiny Australian wine!) Are any of these wines actually better for the environment? Our next tasting will be the AWS National Tasting Project and it’s based on these types of wines, so, people have been asking me to explain the differences. It’s a good question and one that our members may have answered at our tasting.

We sympathize with your confusion, though. Reading a wine label is about as easy as deciphering a Mayan hieroglyph. Unfortunately, there’s no simple solution for minimizing your eco-footprint. Many factors contribute to an individual bottle’s overall environmental impact, including growing practices, packaging size and type, and shipping distance and method.

With all three types of wine, the goal is the same: to make good wine, that’s derived from good grapes that are grown in good soil and achieved by going back to more traditional methods.

After World War II, scientists were working to improve our lives by inventing things like polyester shirts and TV Dinners. The agricultural industry got artificial fertilizers that promised to be labor-saving, cost-effective and able to produce great results. Routine spraying and additions of nitrogen, magnesium and potassium to vineyards left soil without life and low in nutrients. Microbiologist Claude Bourgignon was quoted as saying that some of the most famous vineyards in Burgundy had less microbiological life than the Sahara because their soils were depleted by the use of chemical fertilizers. Something had to change. Over the last thirty years, new approaches have been adopted for many agricultural crops including wine grapes.

Organic Wine

Organic wine is wine made from grapes grown in vineyards that don’t use synthetic chemicals, fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides and pesticides.

The idea is that the best grapes possible are used in the manufacture of the wine. The soil is respected and biodiversity of the environment is encouraged. Vines grow in soil rich in worms, insects and bacteria. They grow cover crops of mineral rich plants, herbs and flowers. This results in the soil being full of nutrients and trace elements that the vines can absorb. The vines are also stronger, healthier and more resistant to disease. Natural predators are added to the vineyard like ladybugs to tackle aphid problems, birds to eat spiders or beetles, and chickens from mobile chicken coops placed around the vineyard to eat grubs and vine weevils from the ground.

Vegetarian wine is not necessarily organic. It is wine made without the use of animal products at the fining stage. No egg whites or fish-derived gelatins are used. It is certainly not, as explained to me by an obvious lunatic, "a wine that is not suitable for serving with meat dishes."

Biodynamic Wine

For a vineyard to be considered biodynamic the grower must follow the organic criteria plus some or all of the philosophies first published in 1924 by Rudolf Steiner. At the request of the Austrian farming industry he produced a series of lectures on an ecological and sustainable approach to agriculture that increased soil fertility without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. His idea was to apply a holistic approach to the farm where every organism contributes and has part to play in the "circle of life." The farm should encourage biodiversity, be self-sustainable and resist monoculture through cultivation of a variety of plants (vineyards are normally monocultures as they grow just vines). It combines a planting, sowing, harvesting and pruning regime determined by the position of the sun, moon and planets. This approach, later refined by agriculturalist Maria Thun, provides the basis to modern biodynamics. 

It is the circle of life. Animals eat the plants and plants eat the animals, everything is reduced to its basic carbon state and then rebuilt, it’s a continuous cycle.
~ Alvaro Espinosa, Chilean biodynamic winemaker of Emiliana and Antiyal

Steiner outlined nine preparations (500-508).  These are made from cow manure, quartz (silica) and seven medicinal plants. Some of these materials are first transformed using animal organs as sheaths (the animal organs are not used on the vineyards). Of the nine biodynamic preparations, three are used as sprays (horn manure, horn silica and common horsetail), and the other six are applied to the vineyard via solid compost.

Preparations intended for sprays are mixed with water and go through "vortexing" where the liquid is vigorously stirred in one direction then another for up to an hour before use. This induces thickness to the solution. Although there are some bizarre elements to the whole biodynamic philosophy, most advocates don’t know why or how some of these preparations work; but they claim that they do. Bodies such as Demeter will grant a certificate for those reaching the criteria. Biodynamic growers see the vines as just part of the whole operation. It is very much considered to be a lifestyle choice for themselves, their workers and their livestock.

Things got much easier between myself and my cow when I looked him in the eye and realized he genuinely wanted to help.
~ Bertie Eden, Château Maris, Minervois la Livinière

Rudolf Steiner's Preparations 500-508

• COW MANURE - Preparation 500: Cow manure is buried in cow horns in the soil over winter. The horn is then dug up, and its contents (called horn manure or "500") are then stirred in water and sprayed on the soil in the afternoon. The horn may be re-used as a sheath. Stimulates soil life and root growth.
• QUARTZ - Preparation 501: Ground quartz is buried in cow horns in the soil over summer. The horn is then dug up; its contents (called horn silica or "501") are then stirred in water and sprayed over the vines at daybreak. The horn may be re-used as a sheath. Enhances light metabolism and photosynthesis.
• YARROW - Preparation 502: Yarrow flowers are buried while sheathed in a stag's bladder. This is hung in the summer sun, buried over winter, and then dug up the following spring. The bladder's contents are removed and inserted in the compost (the used bladder is discarded). Encourages uptake of trace elements.
• CHAMOMILE - Preparation 503: German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) flowers are sheathed in a cow intestine. This is hung in the summer sun, buried over winter, and then dug up the following spring. The intestine's contents are removed and inserted in the compost (the used intestine is discarded). Stabilizes nitrogen and calcium and enhances soil life.
• NETTLES - Preparation 504: Stinging nettles are buried in the soil (with no animal sheath) in summer, dug up the following autumn, and inserted in the compost. Stabilizes sulfur and stimulates soil health.
• OAK BARK - Preparation 505: Oak bark is sheathed in the skull of a farm animal and buried in a watery environment over winter, then dug up. The skull's contents are removed and inserted in the compost (the used skull is discarded). Provides "healing forces" to prevent disease.
• DANDELION - Preparation 506: Dandelion flowers are buried, sheathed in a cow mesentery (peritoneum). This is hung in the summer sun, buried over winter, and then dug up the following spring. The mesentery's contents are removed and inserted in the compost and the used mesentery is discarded. This stimulates the relationship between silica and potassium so silica can attract "cosmic forces" to the soil.
• VALERIAN - Preparation 507: Valerian flower juice is sprayed over and/or inserted into the compost. Stimulates compost so that phosphorus will be properly used by the soil.
• HORSETAIL - Preparation 508: Common horsetail (Equisetum arvense) is used to prepare either a fresh tea or a fermented liquid manure; it is then applied either to the vines (as a tea) or to the soil (as a liquid manure). Lessens the effect of fungus.

http://demeter-usa.org/downloads/Demeter-Farm-Standard.pdf

Sustainable (Natural) Wine

This is the tricky one, the controversial one, and the confusing one. There is no official or legal classification or standard set of operating procedures, which makes natural wine hard to define.

Sustainable winemaking is a philosophy and a nose-to-tail approach to producing wine, extending from vineyard to bottling. In general, organic and biodynamic philosophies concentrate on the vineyard (and similar standards of care in the winery), but with natural winemakers stricter, self-imposed standards exist. For example, copper sulfate sprays and cultivated yeasts are never used in natural wine.

The biggest misconception is about sulfur dioxide, which has been used since Roman times as a disinfectant and an antioxidant. It is the only additive used in natural winemaking, and then only in small quantities, and only if the winemaker wants to. By the nature of this philosophy, natural winemakers are small-scale, artisan operations that may risk their entire year’s production by sticking to their principles, following an ancient method that combines care in the vineyard and winery to produce the best product that nature can provide.

So why does it provoke so much criticism? Robert Parker called it "one of the major scams being foisted on the wine public." Is it the lack of rules, even though they are very strict about what can and cannot be done, or the fact that natural winemakers are called a "movement," yet deny such a movement exists? What about the wines themselves?  There are many good natural wines, but there are also cloudy, fizzy, oxidized, and faulty wines.  Both seem to be acceptable to fans of the philosophy. The Kool-Aid drinkers are especially worrying.  A young sommelier quoted that "Lafite-Rothschild is not a real wine because they use sulfur." 

An analogy

1. Go to MacDonald’s and order the Chicken McNuggets.  This is Arbor Mist.
2. Go to Giant Eagle and buy skinless, boneless chicken tenders.  They’ll be wrapped in plastic on a paper tray. The origin, processing procedures, and additives will be unknown. This is bulk wine.
3. Go to Whole Foods and buy the best chicken they have. It will be corn-fed and free-range. This is organic wine.
4. Go to a butcher, the best you can find, and buy his most expensive chicken. It will be corn-fed, free-range, and from a small, local farm. The feet and head will still be attached. This is biodynamic wine.
5. Raise your own chicken, kill it, pluck it and clean it. Then spit-roast it on an open fire. If you have some chicken skills it will taste amazing. If not, you risk salmonella, chewing on feathers and your friends thinking that you’re crazy. But you won't care and will still insist it’s the best chicken ever.  This is natural wine.

Tune into the blog often for more tips, news, and tasting notices!

http://aws-pittsburgh.blogspot.com/