Voegt biodynamische wijnbouw iets wezenlijks toe aan de duurzaamheid of de gezondheid van de wijn? Die vraag heeft dr. Caroline Gilby, master of wine, dezer dagen willen beantwoorden in een artikel voor de website wine-pages.com van Tom Cannavan. Gilby, plantkundig wetenschapper, publiciste en medewerkster aan de Oxford Companion to Wine, gelooft niet erg in al die hocus pocus die hier en daar in wijngaarden wordt bedreven om de goden niet te verzoeken. Gilby heeft zich gespecialiseerd en wijnbouw en wijnwetenschap en nauwkeurig bestudeerd wat er in de biodynamische wereld zoal gebeurt. Haar belangrijkste en ook wel provocerende conclusies: “Niets anders dan mythe, maanlicht en marketing”. Gebaseerd op een aantal fundamentele boeren praktijken. Niet zelden zijn bioboeren mensen die voor hun ‘bekering’ ook al grote wijnen maakten. Omdat ze er het terroir voor hebben en veel aandacht schenken aan de gezondheid van hun druiven. Wat is er dan verder nodig?” Enkele kernpassages uit Gilby’s artikel:

“The biodynamic calendar is based on the position of the moon in relation to the constellations. These random collections of stars are just an optical illusion, with no relationship to each other at all. They are many light years apart, as well as being many light years from the moon too. I'm very happy to accept that the moon's gravity has an influence on the earth - tides are the very obvious example. However, I really fail to see any mechanism for influence of the phases of the moon - after all these are just about how much of the earth's shadow is passing across the moon, which has no effect on gravity. Even more unbelievable is the view from one 'expert' in biodynamics. He says, "try spinning the wine clockwise - the wine should smell fruity as you'll be drawing down 'sun' forces (fire/heat = ripeness) into your glass. Try spinning the same wine anti-clockwise in your glass as you'll be drawing up 'earth' forces (earth/soil = terroir) into your glass."

The starting point for biodynamic viticulture is to farm organically, and then add on various philosophical and spiritual ideas based on philosopher Rudolf Steiner's teaching from the 1920s. He invented a spiritual philosophy he called 'anthrosophy' based on the idea of protecting (unproven) life forces and cosmic influences. As part of this, a farm is seen to be a kind of unified super organism that should be self-contained. Today there are a number of highly regarded producers who have gone biodynamic, including some of the world's great wine names, so it's certainly worth looking at what has attracted them. In Burgundy these include Roman