It may seem trite to say, but wine is the one agricultural product that sparks the most interest, even passion, in regard to its consumption: from the qualities of its ‘nose’, its taste, the pleasure it can give, to the effects on the body and mind. Interest in wine has reached such a level that there are consumers who travel across the globe to see and touch the actual ground where the grapes are grown, and meet the artisan who grew and vinified them. This is indeed extraordinary given that the nineteenth century industrial model has progressively expanded to the rest of agriculture throughout the Western world! This trend has brought with it a range of adverse consequences including the large-scale standardisation of crops in order to reduce costs, the simultaneous neglect of soil’s natural diversity, and unrestrained mechanisation which has left little place for a human role. This concept of standardisation and cost reduction originally developed at the heart of the automotive industry, but its irrational application in agriculture can lead to absurdities. In contrast, working on the land teaches us a range of skills and the importance of adapting oneself and being aware of soil’s diversity in bringing out the best in each plot of land. In our post-industrial, overly-urbanised society, could wine be our last strong tie to the earth? As Colette so magnificently wrote:
In the plant kingdom, the vine alone allows us to understand soil’s true taste. How faithful it is in its translation! It senses the secrets of the soil and expresses them through the grapes. Flint makes known to us through the vine that it is alive and sustainable. The chalk cries golden tears that flow as wine …
In tasting wine, everyone can feel and truly experience for themselves the impact that a certain form of viticulture has on quality and the expression of terroir (see question 13: Does biodynamics offer a better expression of terroir?). It seems to me that if biodynamics is spreading at such a rate in viticulture, it is doing so to serve as a pioneer and driving force, in opening the door to consumer awareness of the drawbacks of industrial agriculture. And in a short space of time, the consumer will realise that what is true for the vine is true for all agricultural production.
Viticulture is all the more in need of organic and biodynamic farming as, along with arboriculture, it is the biggest consumer of phytosanitary treatments in France relative to surface area under cultivation. Vineyards in the Champagne region, for example, receive on average twenty doses of fungicides and insecticides per hectare, excluding herbicides (source: Étude Agreste 2006). This can be explained by the fact that the vine, like other fruit trees, is a perennial plant. As a result, it is more susceptible to parasites than annual plants which are rotated. And, to be honest, let us add that it is also the crop with the most added value which makes winegrowers a particularly attractive target for the phytosanitary industry.