Thoughts on Biodynamic Wines
I look out for people doing things very differently in the vineyard and winery: Selosse, Leclapart, Prévost, Collin, Cedric Bouchard, Vilmart in Champagne; Foillard and Lapierre in Beaujolais; Coche-Dury amongst others in Côte d’Or; Courtois and Joly amongst others in the Loire; Stéphane Tissot in Jura. Some of these people are biodynamic but not all. The first thing about biodynamics is that it necessitates organic viticulture and low yields. After a few years of this in the vineyard, you’re on your way to making good wine. Both organics and biodynamics encourage an attention to detail, care for the wine and fruit. The other non-scientific aspects of biodynamics have have no effect, in my opinion.
One difference between ‘scientific organic’ producers and some biodynamic producers is a willingness, on the part of the latter, to disregard many wine making conventions of their neighbours: Selosse and his followers using solera in Champagne (of course this is common elsewhere); Lapierre, Foillard doing zero sulfur; Coche-Dury playing mind boggling games with sulfur; Tissot doing vin de paille de Jura with unheard of indigenous red grape varieties; Courtois bottling slightly sparkling, only partially fermented wines. Not all of these wines are successful — to some people, none of the are! But to me, they show what else is possible and that even a very good red Burgundy can be bland if you’re in the mood for something exciting and different.
Importantly, I’ve also found such wines to be extremely well adapted to food, possibly better than traditional wines. I think that in some cases this has to do with volatile acidity but I continue to think it over.
