1 - INTRODUCING BIO-DYNAMICS

a - The theory
In 1924, Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian scientist and philosopher, founded the basis of bio-dynamics, aimed at restoring the health of a diseased agriculture.

Bio-dynamics is a quest for balance. The balance between crops and their immediate or far-off environments. Bio-dynamics considers agriculture as one of the elements of a system in which all the constituents depend on one other.

But, the plant being grown does not just depend on the soil on which it grows, on the climate surrounding it or on the Man growing it. It depends on the Sun bringing it the heat needed for its development.

The Sun is several million miles distant so why shouldn’t other planets influence the Earth and thus the plant being grown ?

Thus bio-dynamics encompasses the Earth within a vast system with all planets interacting, each bring energy to the others.

The Sun’s and the Moon’s cycles do greatly influence climate and tides ; everybody is aware of that. So why not on crops and vineyards in particular ?
Then, bio-dynamics endeavours to channel energies received by the vines.

b - The differences between integrated treatment, biological and bio-dynamical treatment
Integrated treatment is a method of chemically fighting pests based on intervention thresholds set by models. In the case of bud eaters, if over 15% plants have at least one bud affected, an insecticide is justified. Synthetic chemicals are used to fight the vine’s diseases. It doesn’t look into the causes of disease.

Biological treatment is a protection method based on the sole use of natural products. In the same way as integrated treatment, it doesn’t look into the causes.

Bio-dynamics uses natural products, not just to combat disease but to respect the balance between the vine and its environment and to channel existing energies towards the vines. Thus, the plant’s natural defences and strengthened are the imbalance causing disease disappear.

2 - PRACTICAL BIO-DYNAMICS

a - Soil cultivation
The purpose of bio-dynamics is to give the soil a new life, making it the living support of the vines. The vines will then send their roots deep and find a favourable environment with water, minerals and trace elements.

Practically, it’s a question of working the soil. In winter you hill up the vine’s foot, decompact and clear the foot in spring and weed by scratching lightly. You thus open up the soil to improve its aeration, vitality and allow it to receive the life forces from its environment.

Fertilizing is based on a compost of dung and straw. The compost will get decomposed for one year before being buried in winter to allow the earth to absorb it. The soil is revitalized by this organic matter. The soil’s fauna eats up the organic matter, grows and aerates the soil in the process.

b - Sowing calendar
The sowing calendar is based on the research in bio-dynamic agriculture made by Maria and Matthias Thun over the last fifty years. All the calendar’s recommendations are based on experiments carried out on long-standing bio-dynamic soils.

The calendar gives the favourable days for agricultural tasks for each month.

Favourable days fall into four categories : leaf days, fruit days, flower days and root days. So, work done on fruit days will favour fruit development, the plant’s aerial parts on leaf days, root activity on root days and flowers on flower days.

Favourable days have been determined according to the planets’ positions. For planting, you’ll take root and fruit days into account. For grape quality, vine cultivation and treatment will take place on fruit days.

c – Preparations
Cowdung compost preparation:
Cowdung compost is aimed directly at the earth. It sustains and reinforces the organic decomposition process. It holds within itself all the elements helping the formation of the clay-humus complex. Large numbers of bacteria help the process, bringing life into the earth.

Cowdung compost is essentially made up of cowdung, silica, chalk and various preparations (502 to 506) based on plants (camomile, nettle, oak bark, dandelion). It is sprayed in droplets and dynamizing.

Horn dung preparation :
It mobilizes soil elements towards the plant by acting directly on the roots that will grow in thickness and length. They are thus better adapted to capture the plant’s feeding elements, giving it greater resistance to drought in particular.

Sap circulation gets more regular. Horn dung helps life forces to rise into the sap, those very forces brought into the soil by dung compost.

Horn dung is obtained from dung placed into a cow’s horn and buried through the winter, capturing vitalizing forces from the soil.
The preparation is spread on the soil in the evening, after one hour’s dynamizing.
Dung compost and horn dung are only used to prepared the plant and soil to boost the efficiency of horn silica.

Horn silica preparation (501)
It takes care of the atmosphere so that light forces effectively get to the plant. It helps leaves to assimilate the trace elements contained in the atmospher in homoeopathical quantities.

After one hour’s dynamizing, the preparation is sprayed on leaves in fine droplets at sunrise.

501 is finely crushed silica placed in a cow’s horn and buried in summer. It is exposed to the Sun’s life forces. Cow’s horns are natural energy captors and are largely used in bio-dynamics.

These products are used after dynamizing. The process consists in placing the product in water and stirring during a certain amount of time, first in one direction so as to create a vortex, then in the opposite direction. The substance is then transferred to the water.

d - Conclusion
Practical bio-dynamics requires more careful observation of the vineyard and greater availability from estate workers.
This is why everybody at Leclerc Briant’s is concerned by bio-dynamics.

3 – IMPLEMENTING BIO-DYNAMICS AT LECLERC BRIANT’S

a - When ?
Bio-dynamics was progressively set up on the whole of the vineyard immediately after the harvest of 2000. Since the end of 2002, the vineyard has been entirely converted to bio-dynamics.

b - Where ?
Following ten years’ trials in bio-dynamics, the conversion was in three stages :
1st stage : Cumières and Hautvillers Premiers Crus, as well as Epernay and Damery since 2000,
2nd stage : A part of Verneuil in 2001,
3rd stage : Conversion of remaining portions in 2002.