The salesman poured a taste of wine into the glass. I swirled, smelled, tasted, spit. “All BI-O-dy-NAMIC!” he said. I nodded my head, not really sure what he meant. And then he poured another selection. The wine was beautiful, red fruits, and violets, perfect balance of acidity and tannins. I was thinking about the flavor profile when he said, “I was even at the vineyard for one of the cow horn burying ceremonies!”

Wait, what?

I had been a Master Gardener and sommelier for several years, but had never heard of biodynamics. This was outside the scope of UC Davis’ excellent Master Gardener Program. Master Gardeners are taught organic gardening, integrated pest management and companion planting, but, as I came to realize, biodynamics was beyond typical university research-based agricultural practices. It was esoteric, almost folkloric.

A method to the madness

Dr. Rudolf Steiner, the father of biodynamics, was born in Austria in 1861. Clairvoyant as a child, he became a spiritualist and developed the spiritual discipline anthroposophy, defined by the Anthroposophy Society as “a discipline of research as well as a path of knowledge, service, personal growth and social engagement … it is concerned with all aspects of human life, spirit and humanity’s future evolution and well-being.” Waldorf schools are based on Steiner’s research and teachings.

His philosophy on agriculture was one of healing the earth and the soil, rather than stripping away its life giving properties. For him, this was science combined with the inexplicable, intangible life forces.

The cow horns the wine salesman was referring to is a practice based on one of the cornerstones of biodynamics. Biodynamics takes the principles of organic farming and builds on them with compost enhancing treatments and preparations as well as planting on a lunar calendar.