Wine Drinking – Biodynamics
A parishioner friend introduced me to biodynamic vintning the other week. As I wasn’t copacetic on the matter, he spared my ignorance by immediately telling me what that means for wine drinkers.
By way of definition from The Biodynamic Association, biodynamics is “a spiritual-ethical-ecological approach to agriculture, food production and nutrition. Biodynamics was first developed in the early 1920s based on the spiritual insights and practical suggestions of the Austrian writer, educator and social activist Dr. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), whose philosophy is called “anthroposophy.”
As my Sonoma-Valley-educated parishioner friend went on to explain, owners who grow and harvest wines in this fashion might be the sort who don’t like power lines anywhere in the vicinity of the orchards. All natural, all free from potential “contamination,” please.
“Biodynamic farmers strive to create a diversified, balanced farm ecosystem that generates health and fertility as much as possible from within the farm itself. Preparations made from fermented manure, minerals and herbs are used to help restore and harmonize the vital life forces of the farm and to enhance the nutrition, quality and flavor of the food being raised. Biodynamic practitioners also recognize and strive to work in cooperation with the subtle influences of the wider cosmos on soil, plant and animal health.” [The Biodynamic Association]
One such vintner is Tablas Creek Vineyards which grows grapes and lots of other ag product on its 120-acre limestone-rich estate in the north and west of Paso Robles in the Las Tablas region of California.
The owners of Tablas Creek received organic certification for their vineyard back in 2003. More recently, they’v converted much of the vineyard to use Biodynamic techniques, “including our dedicated herd of sheep, alpacas and donkeys who eat down our winter cover crop, fertilize the vineyard with their manure and mix it into the soil with their hooves.”
This post is by no means a promotional for Tablas Creek. There are others. But I will say the 2012 Patelin de Tablas I finished last night seemed a very good value for the $$. (Disclosure: that it was made through the process of biodynamics probably caused your green blogger to have a favorable outlook before the first taste.)