Biodynamics

 

Anyone whose family has been involved in viticulture for eleven generations is deeply connected to the vineyard in which they work. Certainly every person who has worked and cultivated a piece of land over generations not only feel humbleness and patience but also a sense of something that goes beyond the visible and the tangible. The natural rhythm of the seasons is an example. We cannot control the weather and yet it affects us a lot. Many winemakers and farmers develop a special sensitivity for future weather conditions. Who can smell the rain of tomorrow?

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Since 2019, we have been working in our winery according to biodynamic principles. Since 2023, we are a fully certified member of Demeter, the eldest agricultural biodynamic association in Germany. As such, we are the first Demeter winery in Ruwer Valley. We started to refrain from the use of herbicides in 2013. 

 

Biodynamics gives us more freedom and inner peace. It confirms our actions and helps us every day to get to know our vineyards, our wines and ultimately ourselves better. Just like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who writes in his Faust: "that I may understand whatever binds the world´s innermost core together".

 

Biodynamic viticulture can be understood as ecological viticulture that is supplemented by an anthroposophical approach. Biodynamics makes the highest demands of work in the vineyard. Instead of technology and chemistry, the winemaker requires deep knowledge, a high level of intuition and extensive experience in the vineyard. Plant protection with natural preparations serves the health of the vines and achieves the greatest possible level of defenses in the vine. As a winemaker, I try to strike a balance between the plant and the environment. The best way to do this is to encourage the plants to develop their own strength. For this purpose, biodynamic preparations are used in our winery.

 

Sheep live in our vineyard during the winter months. They keep the grass between the rows of vines short and break the viticulture monoculture for five months a year. In addition, they bring a lot of joy and good energy: to us and our vineyards!

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But we also understand biodiversity in a broader sense: in our single-pole vineyards, we tie the vines in the heart shape that is so typical of the Moselle and use natural willows as binding material. The Romans already did it this way and so we maintain a millennia-old tradition, which has been disappearing increasingly and rapidly in recent years. This is because tying with natural willows is very time-consuming. Natural pastures offer an important advantage: they rot over time and do not bring foreign matter into the vineyard. We are also convinced that this natural binding material contributes to a living vineyard. Biodiversity is not only biological diversity: it begins in perception, feeling and thinking and allows us to act accordingly. 

 

Today, we humans often forget how to grasp the connections and use the knowledge that our ancestors learned from thousands of years of observations. It is important to us to experience this knowledge again and to live and work in harmony with our vineyards.

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