Biodynamics Brings Wine Back

Filed in archive Wine Making on May 22, 2007

While we humans, no matter where on this Earth we are from, are forever fascinated by technology, the old "too much of a good thing" holds true when it comes to time-tested techniques such as winemaking. More and more I read about how viticulturalists are returning to the old methods and tossing out those that advocated a turn to modern technology. This latest article from Decanter.com is just one of a number that are reporting on this new turn to the old ways in making wine, Biodynamic pioneer Joly blames wine consultants for death of appellations:

French winemaker Nicholas Joly has blamed consultants for the death of the appellation system in an outspoken attack on modern winemaking techniques.

'Not very much' remains of appellation guarantees to the consumer that a 'special taste' will come from a precise area, Joly says. Consultants are to blame, he says.

Joly, who makes biodynamic wines, says that between the 1950s and 1970s, agricultural consultants recommended the use of herbicides, allowing the winemaker to ignore working the soil.

Side effects included the destruction of bacteria in the soil, resulting in diminished growth and forcing producers to use chemical fertilisers. He also pointed to the use of 'aromatic yeasts', synthetic sap treatments and enzymes - all widely available to producers at the time.

'The taste of wine, its harmony, its beauty, its elegance, belongs to a qualitative world of intangible origin,' he said in his article for the Organic Wine Journal. 'Which cannot be restored as one replaces a layer of paint.'

Joly, whose vines have been given no synthetic chemical products, insecticides or nitrates since he made his Domaine de la Coulée de Serrant biodynamic in 1984, singled the 'materialistically-minded' consultants out for blame. He said they had 'not yet considered that since life is a frequency, it is not to be measured quantitatively.'

He said that biodynamics was helping winemakers regain their knowledge of the soil of their appellation area.