“An organic farm, properly speaking, is not one that uses certain methods and substances and avoids others; it is a farm whose structure is formed in imitation of the structure of a natural system that has the integrity, the independence, and the benign dependence of an organism.”
(WENDELL BERRY, AMERICAN WRITER AND FARMER, IN AN ESSAY ON “THE GIFT OF GOOD LAND”)
It might be possible to produce natural-like wine (see The Cellar: Living Wine, pages 47–50) from non-naturally-farmed grapes because life, particularly microscopic life, is extraordinarily resilient and, even if quashed by chemical sprays, usually manages to pull through in some form or other. However, its complexity, quality, and robustness will suffer, while imbalances in the raw product will usually lead to problems later on in the cellar. If you use fungicides, for example, these will also weaken your yeast populations, making fermentation more difficult and leading to a slippery slope of intervention. Consequently, to be natural, you have to farm cleanly and produce grapes on living soils that are healthy and covered in a rich micro-flora and fauna.
Natural growers use a variety of different farming methods to achieve this, all of which aim to foster plants that are independent of the grower and can fend for themselves. The ideal is to create an environment in which life at large is in balance because, whenever you have an infestation of one particular species, it will take over and problems will ensue. Natural growers, therefore, seek true biodiversity, since plants, bugs, and other wildlife are all allies in the farmer’s fight against pests and diseases.
Wine growers will often pick and mix different methods, some of which are explained here.
THE ORGANIC APPROACH
Many of the principles used in organic farming have existed since time immemorial, but an organic consciousness only emerged in the 1940s, thanks to the likes of Sir Albert Howard (1873–1947) and Walter James (1896–1982), who spearheaded the organic movement.
A blackbird photographed in Switzerland by Patrick Rey as part of his Mythopia series (see previous pages). The soils of this Alpine vineyard are never tilled or plowed.
Organic viticulture (like all organic agriculture) aims to eschew man-made, synthetic chemicals in the vineyard. It restricts or prohibits the use of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and synthetic fertilizers and, instead, uses plant- and mineral-based products to combat pests and diseases, increase the health of soils, and help build plant immunity and nutrient uptake. (Organic viticulture—which natural producers use—should not to be confused with organic viniculture, or winemaking, as cellar practices in organic and biodynamic accredited wines can be different to those used by their natural wine counterparts—see Conclusion: Certifying Wine, pages 90–91.)
While organics are pretty big business in most foodstuffs today, wine has been much slower on the uptake. As the biodynamic consultant and wine writer Monty Waldin explains, “[In 1999] I estimated that for the period 1997–1999... just 0.5–0.75 percent of the global vineyard was certified organic or in conversion to organics.” Thankfully, today, it’s a much prettier picture. Waldin goes on to say, “My best guess is that 5–7 percent of the world vineyard is now organic or in conversion.”
There are now dozens of organic certification bodies around the world—including the Soil Association, Nature & Progrès, Ecocert, and Australian Certified Organic—each of which has its own regulations and standards to meet.
THE BIODYNAMIC APPROACH
Biodynamic agriculture is a form of organic cultivation developed by the Austrian anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) in the 1920s. It is based on traditional practices, whereby polyculture and animal husbandry are at the heart of the farm. Unlike organics, the emphasis of biodynamics is on prevention rather than treatment, as well as on encouraging the self-sufficiency of the farm unit. Natural preparations based on plants (yarrow, chamomile, nettle, oak bark, dandelion, valerian, horsetail, etc.), minerals (quartz), and manures are all used to stimulate microbial life, boost the immune systems of plants, and improve soil fertility.
The vines at Les Enfants Sauvages, a biodynamic farm on the Languedoc-Roussillon border in southern France.
A wasp’s nest among the vines at Strohmeier, in Austria, which is one of the country’s most avant-garde natural wine growers.
This holistic approach treats the farm not in isolation, but as part of a landmass that is part of a planet that is part of a huge solar system, where large bodies of mass exert considerable forces (gravitational, light, etc.) on one another. Life on Earth is fundamentally affected by these large external factors—and biodynamics takes this into account.
While people sometimes struggle with this astronomical approach to farming, some of it is really just common sense. As astronomer Dr. Parag Mahajani once told me, as I stared through the eyepiece of an enormous telescope, “People don’t realize how bright the moon can be. When it’s a full moon, plants grow more.”
Similarly, consider the tides and the effect of the moon’s gravity on our oceans. It doesn’t take much to realize that plants—which are mostly made from water—are greatly affected, too. As Dr. Mahajani also told me, “Tides have one of the most profound effects on Earth. Gravitational pull is on everything—on gases in the air, on land, and in water. Everything is moving up and down—all the buildings, roads, walls, concrete, everything experiences the tide. But, since the bonding of molecules in solids is stronger than those in liquids or gases, it’s just less obvious.” This awareness informs biodynamic farmers’ choices, including, for example, when to prune their vines or bottle their wines. For some fascinating practical illustrations of biodynamics, take a look at the works of Maria Thun (1922–2012)—see Further Exploring & Reading, pages 215–16.
The moon over a vineyard in Chile. This large satellite orbiting the Earth has a profound effect on our planet.
OTHER WAYS OF FARMING NATURALLY
Two personal favorites of mine include the teachings of Masanobu Fukuoka (1913–2008) and what seems to me to be his Anglo-Saxon counterpart: permaculture or “permanent sustainable agriculture.”
Fukuoka was a Japanese farmer-philosopher celebrated for his so-called “hands-off” approach to farming, which had amazing results. As he explained in his book, The One-Straw Revolution (published in 1975), Fukuoka managed to achieve similar rice yields, with his no-tilling, no-irrigation, no-herbicide methodology, as his conventional counterparts toiling day in and day out in neighboring paddy fields.
Permaculture, on the other hand, was a word originally coined in the 1970s by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. As Mark Garrett, a permaculturist friend of mine, once explained, “It’s ‘a way of seeing’ or ‘a way of looking at’ agriculture, so that you think about processes and design systems in such a way that what you set up is self-sustaining and self-sufficient. There is no one single permaculture: different contexts, and different scenarios, necessarily mean different permacultures. You could have one that uses organic principles, one that uses biodynamics, or one that doesn’t label itself as any one thing in particular. Permaculture encapsulates an idea shared by many cultures around the world: that we should farm in such a way that we enrich our environments both for ourselves and for all life that depends on that place, including future generations.”
Chickens at Le Petit Domaine de Gimios. Animal husbandry is a fundamental part of holistic farming.
Daniele Piccinin (whose estate carries his name) uses his own plant concoctions to treat his vines (see pages 76—77).
In the end, whether you call it organic, biodynamic, or permaculture, it’s not the label that counts, but the motivation. In my experience, while any attempt at “clean” farming will have a positive environmental impact, “turning green” for marketing reasons never results in very inspiring farms. Your heart has to be in it. Converting to clean farming can be tough, particularly at first, so something else has to drive it. You have to do it because you know that, in the long term, there is no other way, not because it will get you new customers.
Frank Cornelissen, seen here tending the vines in his magma-producing vineyard, Barbabecchi, on the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, uses Fukuoka-inspired low-intervention farming practices.
