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From organic wine growing to biodynamics Ever since we planted our first vine we were committed to organic wine growing. |
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Let us remember: in the 80ies the Swiss vineyard was about to suffocate under tons of chemical fertilisers and herbi-, fungi, pesti- and insecticides. Organisations such as BioSuisse did not yet exist, the environmental movement was about to be born and we ... were the laughing stock of the Geneva viticulture! Twenty years later the Balisiers terroir is healthy and regenerated to the point of hardly needing any fertilisers (dung or compost) at all. The same goes for our second wine yard in France, Domaine de Lauzières, which we had converted to organic wine growing principles right after our arrival in 1992. |
But we can still improve. For some years now, we work with liquid manure extracted from the stinging-nettle, with clay, horsetail (equisetum) and similar natural remedies, and we are noticing the world of good this work is doing to the soil. In this sense, we are applying more and more the practices of biodynamics without, for that matter, being unconditional devotees of the anthroposophic philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. |