Wine-Searcher: Weighing Up the Value of Biodynamic Wine

Bio­dy­nam­ic farm­ing can be defined as a holis­tic, proac­tive approach to farm­ing that views the farm as a self-sus­tain­ing organ­ism. There are dif­fer­ing glob­al per­spec­tives on bio­dy­nam­ic farm­ing, espe­cial­ly the spir­i­tu­al com­po­nents, but we know how suc­cess­ful this nat­ur­al way of farm­ing is here at Beck­men Vineyards.

We start­ed farm­ing our 125 acre Purisi­ma Moun­tain Vine­yard bio­dy­nam­i­cal­ly in 2003, with our 17 acres of Syrah in Block Six. Walk­ing down our vine­yard road, between this Syrah block and oth­er blocks of Grenache and Syrah, it was clear which was the health­i­er part of our farm. The soil of Block Six changed dras­ti­cal­ly, retain­ing more mois­ture, greater bio­di­ver­si­ty, and an increased lev­el of nutri­ents. The vines grew straight up and the leaves were rich in col­or, shiny, and healthy. The qual­i­ty of fruit grow­ing on the vines was excep­tion­al. Why would­n’t we want our whole farm to look this healthy? It took us three years to expand the bio­dy­nam­ic farm­ing prac­tices to the entire vine­yard, and then three more years for us to receive the inter­na­tion­al Deme­ter cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in 2009. (As opposed to organ­ic cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, Deme­ter is the only bio­dy­nam­ic cer­ti­fy­ing asso­ci­a­tion for the entire world.)

We were hon­ored to be inter­viewed by Vic­ki Denig, as she spent time talk­ing with bio­dy­nam­ic farm­ers across the world in her lat­est Wine-Searcher arti­cle, ​“Weigh­ing Up the Val­ue of Bio­dy­nam­ic Wine”.

Read the Full Wine-Searcher Arti­cle Here