With wine, there are many complex rules about growing, labeling and tasting. To be honest, it can be quite overwhelming when you first are developing an interested. Now, making it more confusing is some of the moves producers are making into biodynamic production.

The basics of principles of biodynamic wine start with many of the organic practices but add in a mixture of ethical-spiritual element to wine production. Essential to biodynamic production is to consider the farm as a living system. Many of the practices emphasize soil health (like the yarrow flowers) as well as the “rhythms of nature” like the effects of lunar cycles. In practices, what that means is certain soil applications happen based on the season, moon, tide and other season factors.

So, does it really produce better wine. In a blind tasting of 10 pairs of biodynamic and conventionally-made wines, conducted by Fortune Magazine and judged by seven wine experts, nine of the biodynamic wines were judged superior to their conventional counterpart. Critics will say that the same results would occur with organic wines as well, without some of the more complicated “rules” of biodynamic production.

Our opinion – biodynamic is a great option to look for when choosing a wine. You can feel confident that in choosing either organic or biodynamic, you will end up with a winery that cares about the plants, the soil as well as producing an excellent product. Time will tell if biodynamic is better than organic but results now show, both tend to be better quality and better for the planet than traditional wines.