This is a follow-up to the BD-Now post titled: Re: BD Viticulture Quotes wanted | Organic vineyarding 05 September 2002 http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/2002/bdnow/msg04160.html
Some of these organic viticulture resources are *very* good. You will also find BD mentioned here and there, especially in the European literature. These resources are so good they are worth summarzing in a new light; this time with a view towards key resources that address production of organic vineyards and wines, and also those specifically embedded with BD research, practices, and qualitative insight. Steve Diver ATTRA http://www.attra.ncat.org =================================================== Part I: The IFOAM Proceedings =================================================== Proceedings of the 6th International Congress on Organic Viticulture IFOAM | August 2000 | Basel http://www.soel.de/inhalte/publikationen/s_77.pdf 263-page PDF An IFOAM proceedings; a core resource in the organic viticulture literature. Includes quite a papers on the status of organic viticulture in Europe, New Zealand, and South Africa. They provide very good insight into acreage, trends, cultural practices, disease control practices, and organizational contacts. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Note to Allan Balliett: See Appendix I from the paper titled "Organic Viticulture in Europe", on page 28, regarding the "relative positive attributes of an organic wine." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Note to Allan Balliett: Also see page 61 in the paper titled "Organic Viticulture in Greece", regarding the discussion on "Concerning the "real" organic quality." Again, the IFOAM papers provide deeper levels of insight as to what constitutes quality typical of the organic and biodynamic family of agriculture. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Plant Protection in Organic Viticulture in New Zealand." Pages 65-68 See notes on biodynamic cultural practices. "To produce the best wine you have to have the best grapes. To really attain the best grapes then they must be grown organically or better still bio-dynamically, and this has to embrace the three-folding order - environmental, financial and social." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Comparisons of Chemical Analysis and Biological Activity of Soils Cultivated by Organic and Biodynamic Methods" Claude Bourguignon and Lydia Gabucci | France | pages 92-94 Contains some very interesting notes on BD viticulture. Though, it appears several pages of figures and tables featuring research results listed in the paper appear to be missing in this web version. This is a significant paper on biodynamic viticulture. Soil analysis results suggest the biodynamic method has a strong influence on soils which can be expected to extend to wine quality. Differences were found between two plots where organic and biodynamic methods were used: "The difference between organic and biodynamic method was caused by the use of bio-dynamic preparations applied on the soil, on the leaves of the vines and on the compost used for fertilization. Yet: "The same quantity of 5 tonnes / ha of compost was used on the two plots." Those are remarkable findings. The discussion provides these remarks: *If these results can be confirmed on other soils of wine yard it could be possible to conclude that biodynamic method has a strong influence on the bioavalability of soil elements. *The hypothesis which can be developed on the action of biodynamic method is the rhizospheric effect. *The wine send in its roots sugar and proteins through the sap. *These roots excretions are able to induce rhizospheric micro-organisms activity. *These microbes are responsible of the oxidation and chelation of soil nutrients which become water soluble and them assimilable by plant roots. *More experiments are necessaries to confirm or firm this hypothesis. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Function of the Soil in the Expression of the 'Terroir'" Claude Bourguignon and Lydia Gabbucci | France | pages 101-103 When you get into "terroir", you are touching on the integration of deep soil psychology and soil health. This is where biodynamic vineyarding, soil quality, berry quality, and wine quality really comes together. This paper is a must read for organic and biodynamic vineyardist. "Less chemicals and more life in our wine soils" must be le motif of the future wine makers." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Next, the two papers in sequence by Robert Bugg + Richard Hoenisch from UC-Davis on cover cropping and Clara Nicholls and Miguel Altieri from UC-Berkeley on biodiversity and biological insect control both belong in The Organic Vineyardist's Library. "Cover Cropping in California Vineyards: Part of a Biologically Integrated Farming System" | page 104-107 | Robert L. Bugg and Richard W. Hoenisch "Plant Biodiversity and Biological Control of Insect Pests in a Northern California Organic Vineyard" Clara I. Nicholls and Miguel A. Altieri | page 108-121 Bob Bugg and Miguel Altieri just about set the conceptual and practical framework for their respective topics. They provide excellent resources. Farmscaping, cover crops, beneficial insect habitat, planned biodiversity, wildlife corridors, soil health, etc.... these are all bundled in the agroecosystems approach of Bugg and Altieri. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Next, "Role of Nature in Soil Management and Quality," on page 125-128, a paper from India, goes even deeper into deep organics. The authors provide insight into compost preparation, creation of a "nursery soil", and the importance and quantity of soil life fed by humus management practices resulting in this "nursery soil." The authors discuss the mental state of the organic farmer and suggest that by following the principles of Nature with faith that the right path, right people, right literature, and opportunities will appear at the right time to help them on the way. The authors introduce Hindu philosophy and get into a discussion of the basic five elements of Akash, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Of special interest to biodynamic readers, the authors break down conservative agricultural barriers and broach the topic of un-manifested state of Consciousness, and the subtle vibrations of the cosmic soundless sound known as AUM. The authors next provide a very interesting summary of vibration and form resulting from the interplay of Fire, Earth, Water, Air and Akash, and especially, how it all relates to soils, plants, cells, buds, and flowers. Noteworthy excerpts: "Soil management is maintaining the balance by supplying the five elements having six tastes such as sweetness, sourness, bitterness, salinity and astringency. Honey providing sweet taste is added to the soil when Earth and Water elements have to be added. Sour buttermilk providing sourness is added when Fire and Earth element have to be added. Neem leaves or oil cakes are added providing bitter taste so supplying Akash and Air. Black pepper provides pungent taste so supplying Fire and Air. Rock salt provides salinity and is added to supply Water and Fire. Alum provides astringent taste and increases Earth and Air. The life forms know how to bring this change by the use of Fire element to alter relative velocity of the matter." "Akash is the subtle element and is the energy within things. Through the Akash the energy within us we can communicate with the energy within the plants. When we consume plant or animal matter we also imbibe the subtle life force of energy that can affect our mind and body and at the same time we upgrade the Conscious level of the food to the human level." "As long as the food is right for human consumption no other creature will attack it, later microflora and insects attack the food and feed on it, leaving various colored spots, a mushy texture and a putrefying smell on the food, indicating that the food is not fit for man. The plants invite the pests when the fruits are not fit for human consumption and have degraded up to a level where only insects and other forms of life can feed on them." "In India this used to be the basis for farming for countless generations and hundreds of innovative farmers have joined hands under the banner of organisations such as Prakruti, Prayog Parivar, Lok Jagruti and share their experiences regularly for the last fifteen years. High yields of grapes are obtained even in areas having scanty rainfall and high temperatures because the soil technology uses heap methodology to control the factors of fertility, moisture content and porosity of the soil. Plants develop profuse root hairs and their capacity to take the right nutrients at the right time increases leading to better yields year after year as fertility levels of soil rise continuously in Eco friendly manner." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Next, a series of papers address insect and disease control practices and products in organic viticulture. In my experience, it is common to find urban environmentalists and arm-chair organic farmers who think organic crop production is a simple matter; that chemical farmers just need to change their chem-happy attitude and adopt organic farming methods; that bees and honey and roses and wine will bubble forth from the land; probably a German beer maid with blonde hair and rosy cheeks is there amidst the splender of organic acres in the image held dear by those people insisting that organics is just a stroll down Parsley Lane. Hardly!! Organic production ain't so easy, and when you examine where it has been most widely adopted, where in-the-ground acreage provides emperical evidence of the decisive factor, you find geography and climate tips the scale when it comes to organic vineyarding and orcharding. If you live in the arid climate of Mediterranea, known in colloquial terms as California, you are blessed 1,000 times in comparison to your cousin scrapping by on a fruit farm in the Humid East, simply by virtue of "where" you live. Whereas the plum curculio is the Achilles Heel of organic tree fruit orcharding, it is the disease pressure of black rot, powdery mildew and downy mildew with may be viewed as the Achilles Heel of organic vineyarding. So papers on disease control in organic production are worth a lot of attention, for Arid and Humid climate farmers alike. Whereas papers summarizing research results on organic disease control in grapes simply did not exist in print just a few years ago, primarily *because* research agendas at universities and elsewhere had not yet evolved to fund organic research, they are now easily accessible in these IFOAM proceedings. Other papers on disease control are featured amongst the web resources listed in the Sanet web archive posting noted above (coming in Part II, another day). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Of special note is "Controlling Vine Powdery and Downy Mildews with the Urticum Preparation", a paper from Yugoslavia; page 193-194. It talks about a preparation known as URTICUM. "The preparation is formulated by extraction bioactive materials (essential and aromatic oils) from a mixture of medicinal and spice types of lumbrico humus." "Good results have been achieved in the efficiency against U. necator and P. viticola by applying the preparation URTICUM." "Considering the possible importance of this preparation in organic vineyard protection programs of diseases it is necessary to study the possibility of stimulating the plant's defensive system and the way of action of the preparation URTICUM to the pathogens." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The next section gets into grape varieties. Of special interest are notes and tables summarizing disease tolerance and disease resistance among varieties. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In the paper from Albania, "The Autochthon Grape ”Shesh” and the Potential for Organic Wine" on pages 231-234: "The sensorial evaluation shows that the wines produced from the grapes of the villages of Baldushk and Shesh are extremely palatable and well balanced, warm with mellow taste, of bright ruby colour and with delightful scent and flavour. We can classify those as organic wines based on ecological areas, agricultural production, wine making and analytical parameters." Conclusions: "It is observed that the vine-growers of the above mentioned areas, that have not used fertilisers for at least last 6 years, have realised generally lower yields, but significantly higher quality of grapes, expressed in ratio sugar-acidity, which results in a high quality of wine." "On the other side in cases of pesticide treatments the quality of wine is deteriorated in terms of floral flavours and typical taste of “Shesh “ variety." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The next section gets into wine quality. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Quality of Organic Wines" Nicolas Joly | France | pages 236-239 Joly is author of the book Le vin, du ciel à la terre, 1997. This is a very good background paper on wine quality from the organic + biodynamic perspective. More deep insight. "The vine is extremely linked to the sun, and it achieves a perfect development of its fruit when it flowers when the sun is at its highest point in the sky (summer solstice). The vine has this wisdom to make its flower for the days where the sun has its optimum potential on the earth with the longest days of the year. All this is then taken “in” by the vine and concentrated in July and August into the grape. The colour, the aromas, the structure, the fatness of the wine is the result of the phenomenon. There is no point to force or rebuilt an appearance of quality through technologies like osmosis, enzymes, fruity yeast, arabic gums etc. It will never be quality, it will always lack the harmony and the ageing potential that quality naturally gives. The only way to achieve quality (and therefore the best expression of all the subtleties that each appellation controllé has) is to help the vine to receive its life sources at best and to bring it closer to its archetypes." "It is important to understand this and to see what actions can bring more “youth”, more strength to the vines, especially when a place has been carrying wines for centuries (more than 900 years non-stop here at the Vignoble de la Coulée de Serrant)." "To achieve this step the wine grower has to achieve a better understanding of the plants which grow around him. One does not need a materialistic knowledge in counting vitamins etc, but search like Goethe did: what is the movement of the plant, where does it express itself at its best, where does it concentrate its forces? In the leaves (rhubarb, nettle, etc.), or in its flowers (lilies)? How does it separate its flowers from its leaves? How much heat does it catch and where? In the branches, in the sap, etc? Look at the surprising affinity of the maple tree with heat. Look how it can concentrate heat in its sap in spring when at that time most plants can barely make a flower! A vine achieves the sugar process much later. Look how a pine tree can resist very cold temperature! All these observations are key factors to find out which plants can help us with a specific problem. An appellation has a certain quality and quantity of heat, of light, of humidity and a certain soil. Their combination contributes to its originality. We have to help our vines to catch it through its roots (work on the soil) or through its leaves (microclimate) with photosynthesis." "In using specific plants we can compensate certain excesses of the climate and may help the vine to incarnate some specific characteristics of the appellation more deeply. The way to do it differs with the nature of each plant - either a tea, or a maceration or a decoction. Some teas can go through a dynamisation, others one should not got though that process, which would become to strong." "One should try to use plants which grow around the vineyards if weedkillers have not destroyed them all. There is an affinity between plants which naturally grow under the same climate. Nature often brings into each vineyard the plants which are needed. It is not 100 % true of course." "One day we will have to admit that the health of a human beings and their creativity is linked to a large extent to their food; and that quality is mainly made of life forces that can not be seen with microscopes." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Quality is More Than Actual Natural Sciences can Define" Hartmut Heilmann | Germany | pages 240-241 Broad views on quality from a holistic perspective +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Differentiation of Wines Produced by Organic or Conventional Viticulture According to Their Sensory Profiles and Aroma Composition" Isabelle Dupin, Pascal Schlich, Ulrich Fischer | Germany + France | pages 245-251 A comparative study differentiating 91 German white wines produced either by organic or conventional viticulture. The wine sensory characteristics were evaluated by Quantitative Descriptive Analysis. The region of production (climate + soil) had a stronger impact on sensory properties than the applied production style (organic + conventional), whereas the individual winemaking practices had a smaller impact than expected. Of special interest are the 16 taste and aroma attributes: Apple | Peach / Passion Fruit | Citrus | Pineapple / Artificial Fruit | Honey | Smokey | Green beans / Beeche | Herbaceous | Rose blossom / Acacia | Sauerkraut | Musty | Fruit taste | Adstringency | Bitterness | After taste | Vegetative taste +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Novel Methods to Characterise Wine Quality -Examinations with Wines from Exact Field Experiments (Organic Viticulture – Integrated Viticulture)" R.Kauer, H.R.Schultz, J.Bolanz | Germany | pages 254-255 Experiments were conducted with Riesling at the State Research Institute at Geisenheim, Germany. The experimental vineyard had been converted to an organic viticulture system in 1996. In 1997 and 1998 the following production systems and wines were compared: I: Organic Viticulture (OV) II: Organic Viticulture without sulfur: (OVwS) III: Organic Viticulture without copper: (OVwC) IV: Integrated pest management system (IPM): (IPM) The wines, (vintages 1997 and 1998) were evaluated by the following methods: *Electrochemical method *Biophotonics *Chemical analyse *Sensory evaluation "Sensory evaluation by triangle test, rankings and descriptive sensory analysis resulted in clear differences between the wines from the different production systems." =================================================== ===================================================
