Better Wine Through Biodynamics

You logically might inquire, “What is biodynamic?” Generally, it’s a way of making wine that is organic (no herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, chemical fertilizers, etc.) but much more. In truth, biodynamic winemaking has practically made organic winemaking passé.

Biodynamic winemakers, like Etzel, perform their work according to a special calendar. This “cosmic calendar,” if you will, tells them when to perform their work according to the alignment of the planets and other astronomical conditions. Okay, this does make you wonder. Sounds a bit like sorcery. But we do know that many winemakers have for centuries bottled their wine, at least, when the moon is full. One Bruno Giacosa, of Barolo/Barbaresco renown, told me years ago that he only bottles when the moon is full.

And, let’s get practical, looking at another field, money. Two recent studies, cited by The New York Times, have suggested that stock prices are affected by phases of the moon (“Lunar Cycle Effects in Stock Returns,” by Ilia Dichev and “Are Investors Moonstruck? Lunar Phases and Stock Returns,” by Lu Zheng, Kathy Yuan and Qiaoqiao Zhu). Both studies contend that during the 15 days of the lunar moon closest to the new moon -- seven days before to seven days after -- the stock market’s average return is significantly higher than those of the other half of the month. Huh, maybe there is something to all this “lunar-cy.”

Returning to wine. In addition to gazing at the sky, biodynamic winemakers do a lot of other unusual things. They make teas, sprays and potations of dandelion seeds, yarrow flowers and other plants to apply to sick vines. The dandelion seeds are fermented in cows’ intestines and the yarrow flower in a pig’s bladder. Etzel takes particular delight in packing cow’s horns with cow dung and burying the horns over the winter in a specially selected trench with the ideal shade, pitch and proximity to stream water. Well, he does have a lot of fun with this.

Actually, this is all pretty complex. There is a handbook that tells how to make the various biodynamic preparations, how to apply them and what to use them for. These preparations have numbers. Take the buried cow dung in the horns mentioned above. It is used in a preparation #500. It is to enhance the calcium process, to help plants and seedlings establish themselves. A 1 D2 cup of dung is dissolved in enough water to cover one acre. The solution is stirred for an hour. A whiskbroom is dipped into the preparation and it is sprayed on the ground in the motion of casting seeds.

That sounds easy enough. But the handbook cautions also that the spraying should be done in the evening when you sense “the rhythm of the day is returning its life force to the earth.” An hour before sunset is fine, later even better.

So it goes in a biodynamic vineyard. One might ask rightly, “Who thought all this up?” The credit goes to an Austrian scientist named Rudolf Steiner. As the story goes, Steiner delivered a series of lectures in 1924 that laid the groundwork (sorry) for biodynamic farming. He was a learned man in many fields. Kind of a Hesse, Ouspensky, Gaudí and the Jolly Green Giant all in one.

The general idea is that there is natural unity among living things which is also affected by the cosmos. When this unity is unbalanced disease and disruption occurs.

“We’re working with whole picture,” Etzel explains. “Instead of wanting to kill everything that competes with the grape by chemicals, as was the idea in conventional farming, we respect everything in the vineyard. We try to maximize every natural thing we have.”

As he talks, a pesky bee circles around. I wave it away. “Don’t hurt the bee, the bee is one of our friends,” he chides with a frown. I tease him by pointing out that deer are not apparently his favorite friends. He has erected a high wire “deer fence” around his immaculate Upper Terrace Vineyard. “Yeah, those deer really like to eat Pinot Noir grapes,” Etzel frowns again.

It’s not hard to sense that Etzel has a lot of fun with biodynamic viticulture. And he has fun at the periodic meetings with neighboring biodynamic winemakers, held in his cabin on the fringe of the High Terrace Vineyard. There, with his cohort Doug Tunnell of the wondrous Brick House Winery (and network TV news fame) and other local “biodynamists,” they trade notes on the “yin and yang” of their labors. The cabin has no electricity which is important so that the winemakers don’t get disoriented by the electromagnetic radiation of the current. And no cell phones, but of course.

Certainly, the crucial question for wine drinkers is, “Does the biodynamic processes really make better wine?” Etzel and his circle believe it makes a palpable difference, particularly with the resulting wines’ tannins. It seems to increase the smooth, silky tannins of the wines. It also seems to increase the fruit intensity and add a minerality that was less apparent pre-biodynamics.

Finally, it should be noted that biodynamics is not something that has been applied mainly in Oregon. Ancient agrarian cultures have treated their farmlands as interconnected organisms with the cosmos. Witness the Egyptians and Mayans for two of very many. In Burgundy, touted winemakers such as Leroy and Leflaive have employed biodynamics since the 1980s. Not surprisingly, the radical “terroirist,” Marcel Deiss winery has been working this way in Alsace for decades. More recently, Cayuse in Washington has enjoyed immense critical acclaim with its biodynamic wines.

Still, with all these things said, there are aspects of biodynamics which some wine buyers would find “far out.” Etzel admits, “We decided not to market Beaux Frères as biodynamic or even organic. We don’t want people thinking we’re a little crazy.”

But when you see the reviews and scores Beaux Frères’ wines garner in the world’s wine press, few would call the concept “crazy.” The winery consistently leads the pack of Oregon Pinot producers with scores in the nineties. This has created such a demand that 70 percent of the wines are swiftly sold off the winery’s mailing list to private customers. The lesser part is allotted to particular markets around the globe.

The winery in 2004 produced four distinct bottlings. The namesake is, of course, BEAUX FRERES VINEYARD. This is the original estate vineyard that was planted from 1988 to 1995. The vineyard consists primarily of Pommard and Wadenswil clones. The wine is normally concentrated, with striking extract. It almost always tops 14 percent alcohol. Etzel admits that at times he has done too much “green harvesting” (clipping grape clusters before they turn red) which concentrates the wine’s final alcohol and flavors. An attempt was made in 1999 to tone things down by decreasing the “green harvesting” and decreasing new wood barrels (down from 100 percent to 80 percent with lighter toasting). Yet the wine remains opulent and concentrated which wine consumers, and wine critics, adore. Normally, around 1,100 cases are bottled each year.

BELLES SOEURS is a “feminist style” Beaux Frères. In 2004, the wine is an assemblage of four different vineyards. The original idea was for the wine to come from the lighter barrels of the Beaux Frères, with a lower percentage of new oak. But things changed in 1998 when grapes were bought in from the Shea Vineyard. Now, the grape sources vary. “It confuses people and we’re planning to retire the label,” Etzel notes. Historically, the wine is fleshy, without hard edges. It’s more in a Côte de Beaune style than a Côte de Nuits. From 2004, 1,500 cases were produced.

BELLES SOEURS, ANA VINEYARD, a variation on the above theme, was produced in 2004. The Ana Vineyard is old, planted by Andy Humphry in 1976 with Pommard clones on their own root stock. It’s a charming, medium-bodied wine, with a complexity equal to some of the world’s elite Pinots. About 200 cases were made.

BEAUX FRERES, THE UPPER TERRACE -- while the original Beaux Frères Vineyard bottling has been the winery’s hot-air balloon from the start, this is their new corporate jet, costing over $100 a bottle. It comes from an 11 acre parcel, planted at the end of the 1990s. The first wine was vinted from the 2002 harvest. Judging by that wine and following releases, Etzel’s objective appears to be a dark, brooding, “Blue Velvet” sensuality with an Isabella Rossellini sense of style. Only 280 cases were produced in 2004. These are Romanée-Conti levels of low production.

Peering out to the woods from the winery office, Etzel frowns slightly and calls himself a “control freak.” “I want to be involved in every aspect of the wine making.” But, he really doesn’t come off as a “control freak.” For me, he seems more an adult/child who loves to play in the dirt by day and ponder the stars at night. And drink good wine most the day long, but of course.