What is biodynamic wine?

Biodynamic viticulture is organic viticulture with its own set of preparations and working methods on top, certified by a private quality mark.

The starting point is an agricultural course from 1924. Demeter, the oldest quality mark, now speaks of more than a hundred years of biodynamic farming and calls its own standard the strictest in organic farming.

Because the organic rules form the basis, all the prohibitions listed there also apply in the vineyard, including those on artificial fertiliser and synthetic pesticides.

No. Organic is regulated at European level in Regulation (EU) 2018/848, while biodynamic is a private standard that comes on top of that.

An organic business is inspected at least once a year by a recognised control body and may only then use the word organic. The European rules do name biodynamic preparations as a permitted aid, but do not lay down a biodynamic standard.

Anyone who wants to put biodynamic on the bottle therefore joins Demeter or Biodyvin. Both quality marks have their members inspected every year.

Demeter and Biodyvin both require an annual inspection and a conversion of the whole estate, not of a single plot.

Biodyvin was founded in 1995 and has more than two hundred member estates, mainly in France and also in Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Switzerland, among others. Only fully biodynamic estates are admitted, or estates that commit to converting fully within three years.

Demeter works with an international standard and its own inspection that sits alongside the organic inspection.

Look for the Demeter or Biodyvin logo on the bottle or for the mention on the estate's website.

Because there is no European definition, the quality mark is the only firm signal; the word biodynamic alone is not checked. Biodynamic estates are as a rule also organically certified, because those rules form the basis.

In Bathmen there are, among others, wines from Domaine Cazes from Rivesaltes. That estate covers 220 hectares, by its own account has worked fully biodynamically for twenty years and is listed as a member of Demeter France, alongside certification via Biodyvin and Ecocert.

Biodynamic says something about the work in the vineyard and the cellar, not about the taste of the wine.

The seals prescribe working methods and not a flavour profile. Within Demeter and Biodyvin, light and heavy wines stand side by side, from very different regions and of very different grape varieties.

If you want to know how a bottle tastes, ask in the shop. We taste for ourselves and prefer to tell you what we have tasted rather than what a quality mark promises.