Biodynamics - a method of farming where you shove excrement in a cow horn and bury it whilst dancing naked around your vines, singing and sacrificing a virgin. It involves magic potions that include ingredients such as deer urinary bladders, skulls and dandelions. There are also all sorts of strange and wonderful things that you can do to encourage your grapes to grow better, most of which, a couple of hundred years ago, would have resulted in a hoard of hysterical peasants yelling "burn the witch". Oh, and the concept was embraced by the Nazis to the extent that Auschwitz had a biodynamic garden. End of lesson.
I'm not going to go into the pros and cons of whether biodynamic farming has any benefit - I'm neither a winemaker or a farmer so I can't pass any comment on this - and there are arguments on both sides, but there is one aspect of biodynamics that I am interested in - the biodynamic calendar.
Apparently every day of the year is either a root, fruit, flower or leaf day and the fruit and flower days are best for drinking wine. So, in an exceptionally amateurish way, I tested this theory out. According to the biodynamic calendar, April 13th 2011 is a leaf day and the 14th is a fruit day. Therefore, on the 13th a wine should suck and on the day after it should be glorious. But how could I test this without any variables such as bottle variation or oxidisation.
After I lightly made fun of their video, the people at WineSave kindly sent me a couple of cans of their WineSave gas for me to try. This heavier-than-air argon gas forms a layer on the surface of wine and prevents it from going off or breathing. So, after testing the WineSave on a sample wine to make sure it worked (and it does) the plan was as follows.
Open one cheap wine and one more pricy wine on a leaf day. Taste them, write a note and rate them. Then, squirt a bit of WineSave over the top of the surface and keep both wines in one place for 24 hours. The next day, a fruit day, I repeat the process. If there is anything in this biodynamic calender, the wines should be better on a second day. Simple really. Here is what I found out.
Day 1 Leaf Day - wines are supposed to suck
2001 Trimbach Cuvee de Signeurs de Ribeaupierre Gewurztraminer
Beautiful aromatics of fresh flowers, a touch of honey and then some gorgeous sweetened grapefruit come off the wine. The palate has a minerally note up front, then some grippy alcohol. It is very minerally, some higher alcohol coming through. The finish is nicely balanced, some good petrol notes too and a super clean finish. It isn't gripping me as much as it should, but it is a good wine. 7/10
2008 Tramontane Grenache
Bright, vibrant cherry fruit, a little bit of cassis kicking in with just a touch of spice and leather. There is some red apple skin, some leather, spice elements too with some really nice dusty flavours. It has a slight peak of alcohol, but it softens well with nice balance. The tannins grip a bit and then clean up well in the finish. It is almost as though someone has taken the bright fruit and put a layer of dust on it. 7.5/10
Day 2 Fruit Day - wines are supposed to rock
2001 Trimbach Cuvee de Signeurs de Ribeaupierre Gewurztraminer
A bit more minerally up front, and then backed up with the floral honey aromas. A little bit of white pepper too. A lot of grapefruit coming through. There is bacon fat on the palate, the alcohol has softened and it is much better integrated than yesterday. It lacks some of the showy elements it did yesterday. The finish is very elegant and it is no doubt a better wine today. 8.5/10
2008 Tramontane Grenache
A lot of cherries on the nose but they are delivered in a much more complete way. You have more savoury aromas then yesterday too. There is none of the red apple, there is no leather and the dust has been polished off. The palate has a lovely bright fruit, leather texture and the tannins are nice but not imposing. There is a liquorice element on the start of the finish that evolves into a very nice fruit fest with a bit of menthol coming in. Again, this is a bit more complete than yesterday. 8/10
Conclusion
On the Fruit day, the wines tasted better than they did on the root day, and therefore the theory that the biodynamic calendar influences how you taste wine could be considered accurate. However, these wines tasted no better than if they had had a few hours to breathe, so I'm still not convinced as the WineSave may allow a little bit of oxidisation to occur. I admit my test conditions had more holes in them than a lump of Gouda, so one day I may need to be a bit more clinical and repeat this test. At the moment though, I'm a little bit convinced that this hippy-dippy calendar might have something to it after all.
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