Biodynamic wine is made from grapes farmed under biodynamics, an approach that treats the vineyard as a self-sustaining living system and times its work to the rhythms of the Moon and planets.
Where biodynamics comes from
Biodynamics began with a series of eight lectures on agriculture given by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner in 1924, at Koberwitz in what is now Poland. Farmers had asked him about declining soil health, and his answer was to treat each farm as a single organism: soil, plants, animals and people working together, with as few outside inputs as possible.
Steiner's ideas were developed by later practitioners into a working method. One of them, the German researcher Maria Thun, spent decades running sowing trials and turned the lunar rhythms into the planting calendar that biodynamic growers and wine lovers still follow.
What biodynamic growers actually do
- Farm without synthetic chemicals. No synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers, as in organic farming.
- Build the soil. Compost, cover crops and animals in the vineyard feed the soil life.
- Use the preparations. Steiner described a set of preparations, numbered 500 to 508. The best known are horn manure (preparation 500), cow manure buried in a horn over winter and stirred into water to spray on the soil, and horn silica (501), ground quartz sprayed on the leaves. Six more (502–507), made from plants such as yarrow, chamomile and valerian, go into the compost, and a horsetail tea (508) is sprayed against fungal disease.
- Follow the calendar. Planting, pruning, harvesting and even bottling are timed to the Moon's position. That is the same calendar Moonvine puts on your phone.
Biodynamic vs organic vs natural wine
| Organic | Biodynamic | Natural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Synthetic chemicals in the vineyard | Not allowed | Not allowed | Usually not used |
| Preparations and lunar calendar | No | Yes | Sometimes |
| Rules for the winery | Some | Stricter | Minimal intervention |
| Certification | Government and private bodies | Demeter, Biodyvin | Mostly informal |
Every certified biodynamic wine is also organic, but it goes further. "Natural wine" is a looser term about what happens in the cellar: wild yeasts, little or no added sulfur, nothing added or taken away.
How to spot a biodynamic wine
Look for a certification logo on the label. Demeter, founded in 1928, is the largest biodynamic certifier worldwide. Biodyvin is a French association of biodynamic growers. Many estates farm biodynamically without certifying, so the back label or the winery's website is worth checking too.
Some of the most famous names in wine farm biodynamically, from Nicolas Joly in the Loire, an early champion of the movement, to Domaine Leflaive in Burgundy and Zind-Humbrecht in Alsace.
Is biodynamic wine better?
Healthy, living soils and careful farming tend to produce good grapes, and many critics rate biodynamic estates highly. Whether the preparations and the cosmic timing add something beyond very attentive organic farming is debated, and hard to test. What you can test is the tasting side of the calendar. Here's what the evidence says.
The biodynamic calendar and drinking wine
The same calendar that tells growers when to prune also gives every day a type: fruit, flower, leaf or root. Many wine lovers, and some retailers, believe wine tastes best on fruit days, whether or not the wine itself is biodynamic. Check today's day type.
Questions
Is biodynamic wine organic?
Yes. Certified biodynamic farming excludes synthetic chemicals just as organic farming does, and adds the preparations, the lunar calendar and a whole-farm approach on top.
Does biodynamic wine have sulfites?
Usually yes, but less. Biodynamic certification allows lower sulfite levels than conventional winemaking, and some producers add none.
Do I need biodynamic wine to follow the biodynamic calendar?
No. The tasting calendar is about when you drink, not how the wine was made. Any bottle can be saved for a fruit day.
