Origins and Principles
It was in 1924, during eight lectures given to farmers, that the philosopher Rudolf Steiner set out for the first time the principles of the biodynamic culture. This new way of thinking about agriculture is the result of a growing concern, among farmers and agronomists, about the effects of farming methods of the time, particularly on fauna and flora.
Biodynamic is based on the fact that its principles that the plant should not be considered solely as the plant that is being cultivated, but all its surrounding organisms as part of a single entity (plant, soil and fauna). Therefore, Rudolf Steiner explains, that if we look at the environment of our plant as a whole, the disease of this plant could only be the result of an imbalance, located elsewhere in the system around the plant.
The goal of biodynamic agriculture is to conserve or recreate an environment that is not polluted and non-hostile to the fauna, flora, and soil of our crops. It is also necessary to avoid exhaustion of the soil in the long term, because of intensive and un-reflected exploitation.
Biodynamic provides several preparations from plant, animal and mineral material, that can be applied to our crops, to enhance the exchange between the plant and the soil. Its proximity to the Earth, the Moon and the Stars, affect the plant the fauna and the soil.
Biodynamic is first and foremost an awareness of existing interactions at all levels. A vine is defined by the plant, its soil, its space, its environment, its connection with the fauna and the flora and the winemaker.
The work done by Maria Thun has proved the impact of cosmic movements on the growth of a plant. This impact is related to several factors, such as the position of the Moon in relation to the Earth, the position of the Sun and Planets in relation to the constellations.
Thus Maria Thun was able to establish a calendar, thanks to her observations.
This calendar has defined several types of days that favor a different part of the plant :
- Flower day
- leaf day
- root day
- fruit day
These four parts of the plant will be stimulated at different periods according to all the parameters stated above.
Maria Thun’s calendar is today a very useful tool, for the biodynamist, because it gathers all the information necessary to optimize the actions that the man will want to carry out on his plant.
As with other crops, the use of biodynamic in the vineyards, strengthens the interactions between the soil and the plant in its root and leaf system.
Two preparations are particularly used :
- Preparation 500, based on horn dung : strengthening and structuring of soil and roots.
- Preparation 501, based on silica of horn : reinforcement of the aerial part of plant.
There are other preparations used, most of them plant-based, each with the aim of regulating a specific imbalance. All the preparations used on the vine must be boosted, that is to say that they are diluted in rainwater in a dynamizer, then put under very fast agitation so it forms a vortex (hollow whirlpool which, under certain conditions, originates in a flowing fluid) and by changing direction of suddenly stir, once the vortex formed, to create energetic chaos. These energized preparations are then sprayed directly on the vine.
The wines issued from the biodynamic viticulture are certified by the organisms “Demeter” “Bio-dyvin”or “Nature & Progrès”.
