26 May Biodynamic Viticulture
There’s a pattern that’s getting some traction when it comes to winemaking. As the pendulum has actually swung wide in favor of big box shops, moving further and further far from homegrown, locally-sourced food and drinks, a few of us find ourselves yearning to return to an easier lifestyle. We ‘d like to live more connected to the earth, know where our food originates from and how it’s grown, and we’re interested in adding to our local economies more than big-name superstores.
In addition to a heightened focus on nutrition these days, more people want to be self-sufficient with less dependency on external sources for food. These grass-root philosophies are acquiring appeal as we look for to reconnect with earth’s olden cycles of seasons and systems, taking advantage of them for our nutrition and benefit.
And it isn’t just happening with exactly what we eat; it’s occurring in the wine industry, too. People have an interest in food and drinks that have been grown utilizing natural techniques, ensuring that exactly what they put in their bodies hasn’t been treated with hazardous insecticides and pesticides. Sure, those things keep the pests down, but they likewise enter into our food, which means that we consume those very same damaging pollutants.
That’s why individuals go organic. These days, there’s a trend to press the organic envelope even further by employing the viewpoints of biodynamic farming, methods that more vintners are starting to utilize.
Biodynamic farming is natural, but it incorporates more than growing crops without making use of chemical insecticides, fertilizers, or pesticides. It looks at farming through a cyclical lens: the idea being that exactly what you grow will feed your animals, and the waste from the animals is then used to fertilize crops. Basically, you do not use any outside resources to “feed the farm”; the farm can stand alone.
Biodynamics incorporates some spiritual ideas. Alan Brockman, a farmer who was known for employing biodynamic methods in his farming, talked about how it’ s really not such an odd philosophy if you stop and consider it.
For folks that get thrilled about great wine, among the strong arguments in favor of farming by doing this is that it has the tendency to yield a more genuine terroir. Since nothing artificial is used in this agricultural method, the idea is that the soil is fed through natural processes, permitting it to evolve in an authentic way. Thus, the terroir is the genuine short article, something that hasn’t been modified or modified by abnormal methods.
As Ray Isle states in his post, Biodynamics: The Next Trend:
” At its many basic, the biodynamic method to grape-growing sees the vineyard as an environmental whole: not simply rows of grapevines, however the soil beneath them– an organism in its own right– and the other plants and fauna in the area, growing together interdependently. Where biodynamics differs from other kinds of sustainable or organic farming is in its idea that farming can be attuned to the spiritual forces of the universes. This may mean linking sowing and collecting to the phases of the moon or the positions of the worlds; it also might imply burying cow manure in a cow’s horn over the winter season, unearthing it in the spring, diluting a minute amount of the substance in 34 liters of water, ‘dynamizing’ it by stirring it by hand in rotating instructions for an hour or so then spraying the mixture over one’s vineyard. Does it work? Well, followers of biodynamics think so, though the success of the practice is impossible to quantify: Scientific measurement of the spiritual is a contradiction in terms. The most reliable argument for biodynamics is that wines produced employing it are more evocative of the location they’re grown– and, subsequently, much better.”
Whether it sounds cracked up to you or not, it stands to reason that utilizing natural approaches would make for a much better terroir– and thus, a better tasting wine. And, as a motorcoach service provider, among the things we like to do with groups is take them to delight in lovely vineyards and scrumptious tastings on our wine tours. Call for more details today with our charter bus rental Maine if you’re interested in finding out more about these enjoyable getaways!
Information for this post came from the following sources:
http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/biodynamics-the-next-trend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ykJR3f7Zo
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