Reputable winemakers are looking to the stars for guidance - and claiming heavenly results. Is biodynamics New Age nonsense or a force to be reckoned with, asks Patrick Matthews.
Last year, Andrd Ostertag's vines started behaving oddly. In his corner of Alsace, the plants are usually rather squat and bushy, the leaves tending to shade each other, screening the developing grapes from the sun. If he is to achieve disease-free plants and well ripened grapes, he has to spend many days cutting out the surplus leaves. But now, in his five-acre Fronholz vineyard, the vines have undergone a spontaneous mutation.
'It's unbelievable,' says Ostertag. 'We'd always go in the vineyard and work by hand, but last year the plants started growing in a completely different way - much taller and more open, with one leaf separated from another. We hardly had anything to do.'
For the last two years, Ostertag has been experimenting with so-called 'biodynamic' techniques. Derived from lectures given by Rudolf Steiner in 1924, biodynamics involves mixing organic farming with elements of astrology and homeopathy. It is a holistic approach to farming, seeing plants as a living link between the earth, the air and the cosmos. Growers committed to the philosophy forbid the use of chemicals and fertilisers, with the exception of Bordeaux mixture (lime, copper sulphate and water) and sulphur. They rely on herbal-based compost and field sprays, including extracts of camomile, nettle, oak and valerian. Those following the true ethos of biodynamics supplement the infusions by burying cows' horns filled with dung to maintain the harmony and balance of the soil and plants. The vineyard and winery operations are governed by the position of the planets and the phases of the moon.
Ostertag thinks it likely that it is these new methods that have brought about the extreme changes - changes which have not been observed in his neighbours' vineyards. 'The apparent reaction of the plants to biodynamics is astonishing,' he says.
The term biodynamic was coined after the death of Rudolf Steiner in 1925. He created anthroposophy, a system of thought drawing on both Christian-based mysticism and contemporary science. Steiner had a network of disciples who were inspired to turn his roughly sketched ideas on farming into workable methods.
Biodynamics - the term they chose to reflect his ideas - links organic, or 'biological' farming with dynamism. The emphasis is to view plants as part of a wider, constantly changing system. Nothing is seen as inert - even herbal infusions designed to be watered into the soil are 'dynamised' or 'activated' by endless stirring. Steiner also called on farmers to study the influence of the moon on plants.
Today, those inspired by his lectures (whether they are wine growers or farmers), consult the Sowing Calendar, which Maria Thun, Steiner's most ardent disciple, has published every year since 1962 from her experimental farm at Dexbach in the Rheinhessen. In October, for instance, the recommended period for planting begins at 4pm on Sunday the 11th and ends at midnight a fortnight later. From observations begun in the 1950s, Frau Thun has concluded that not only the moon but the positions of the other planets and constellations have precise, measurable effects on plants, favouring at any one time the growth of the roots, leaves, flowers or fruit.
In addition to star gazing, farmers are also offered more down-to-earth advice: this month's tip is to wash the trunks of fruit trees with a mixture of clay and cow dung diluted with whey.
There are influential converts to biodynamics, as well as opponents. The house of Chapoutier in the Rh(tm)ne Valley has come on board, as have the top-rated Leflaive and Domaine Leroy estates in Burgundy. The Chapoutier brothers insist that biodynamics has transformed their vineyard. Following the floods in 1993 that devastated much of that year's vintage, including 80 to 90 per cent of the grapes of Hermitage, only 10 per cent of the Chapoutier grapes were lost. The brothers put this down to the fact that the biodynamic treatment of the vines had caused the roots to grow much deeper, and were therefore unaffected by the floodwaters. Other advocates include two of the most important names in the Loire - Domaine Huet and the Clos de la Coulee de Serrant - as well as followers in Bordeaux, Champagne, California and New Zealand.
The system has its detractors, though. To Dr Richard Smart, an Australian who is probably the best known international vineyard consultant, biodynamics is unscientific tosh and he dismisses it as 'black magic'. It is true that there has been little assessment of whether biodynamics works, and if so, why. Long before Steiner developed his theories, Europe's peasant farmers consulted the phases of the moon; and today, some wine growers use Maria Thun's calender to decide when to plant or prune their vines or to bring in the grape harvest, even if they don't formally commit to biodynamic viticulture. Growers point out the very visible effects of the moon's gravitational pull on the tides to account for its observable influence on plants.
The question is whether such beliefs add anything to organic viticulture. Anne-Claude Leflaive in Burgundy has tried to find out by treating one section of her vineyards organically and another biodynamically. The soil microbiologist Claude Bourguignon did comparative analyses of the vineyards and found 400 of one class of bacterial microorganism per gram of soil in the organic section, but 100,000 per gram in the biodynamic area. As the objective of this type of agriculture is to restore as much life as possible to soil, so that it is continually breaking down and releasing nutrients, the more microorganisms present in the soil the better. What's more, the wines have different tastes. Importer Roy Richards says he can pick out the biodynamic vats because of their full texture and complex flavours. 'I'm not sure I like them more, but perhaps they'll age better,' he says.
Such endorsements are countered by criticism of these methods. Conventional growers love to tell you that their biodynamic rivals are concealing heavy losses from disease and pests, and that these would be even greater but for an excessive reliance on old-fashioned (but permitted) remedies such as copper sulphate and sulphur dioxide.
One case is Chateau Pavie-Macquin in St-Emilion, a sub-region of Bordeaux. In 1993, mildew devastated this biodynamically managed estate and cut the crop by more than two-thirds. The following year it changed hands and the new owner, Nicolas Thienpont, resumed the use of synthetic chemicals, leaving only a quarter of the property under a biodynamic regime.
Since then, however, the 10 biodynamic acres have flourished, according to Thienpont, using only one-third of the quantities of copper and sulphur treatments usually prescribed. He believes that the 1993 losses were due to poorly applied sprays and, although the labels will give no hint of it, he is informally returning Pavie-Macquin to the biodynamic fold.
Biodynamic viticulture is a broad church. Its high priest is Nicolas Joly, maker of one of France's classic dry white wines at La Coulee de Serrant. I encountered him at a seminar at Kew Gardens, where his style of ex cathedra pronouncements seemed rather to rile the ranks of the British wine trade. Joly offers information and encouragement to an ever-widening circle of growers. But this forms only one part of a move throughout the wine world away from the use of chemicals in the vineyard and additives during winemaking.
Other producers, such as Andre Ostertag and Nicolas Thienpont, are finding their way unaided into the new philosophy. 'I don't like gurus,' says Ostertag. 'When you're doing things that would seem laughable to outsiders - like using an infusion in homeopathic quantities - you need to be cold-eyed, not passionate.'