SUSTAINABLE FARMING

Chemical supplements were introduced to enhance production levels and reduce costs.  

WHY ORGANIC?

Because our consciences tell us, enough is enough. Assez! As they say in these parts! In the space of a mere 100 years, we, and the generation before us, have poisoned the earth that feeds us. Oceans awash with plastic, rivers full of chemicals, soil without the microbial matter that gives flavour to our food and wine. Fish, fruit, vegetables, animals, water and wine, all contaminated with chemicals and plastic - obviously within EU permitted tolerances! Enough we say! At least in relation to wine. Making fine wine is not industrial agriculture, and winemakers the world over, have shown that chemicals are not only not needed, but that they are destructive of terroir and taste.

ORGANIC FARMING

Organic farming (en bio), is the removal of synthetic chemicals from the vineyards, although it often goes hand in hand with the application of one or more of the principles of biodynamic farming. 

BIODYNAMIC FARMING

A plant's resistance to infection and insects, is affected by the different phases of the moon.  In the 48 hours leading up to a full moon, there is a noticeable increase in the moisture content of the earth, and the growth forces of plants are enhanced. The influence of the full moon provides favourable conditions (associated with increased humidity) for the growth of fungus on all plants.  There is also an increase in insect activity.

Biodynamic farming is about anticipating the impact of these and other changes, and applying natural remedies to prevent harmful effects, instead of killing everything with harmful chemicals. 

WHY DOESN’T EVERYONE DO IT?

The use of synthetic chemicals reduces production costs and enhances the profits of the winemaker.  It requires less time in the vineyard, and fewer employees.  However this all comes at a price – not to the winemaker, at least not in the short term, but to the ecosystem, the long term sustainability of the land, and the quality of the end product.  The vines become dependent on the chemicals, lose their natural resistance to harmful influences, produce grapes and wine which lack life and vitality, and bear no relation to the unique ‘terroir’ in which the vines are planted.

THE STORY OF MONSIEUR JOLY

Nicolas Joly returned to his family’s wine estate in the Loire in 1977.  He decided that he wanted to make wines that expressed the ‘spot’ of Coulée de Serrant, i.e. the unique ground conditions of that particular place, the ‘terroir’.   However shortly after starting, he was visited by an official from the local Chamber of Agriculture. ‘They told me that my mother had been running the estate well, but in an old fashioned way, and it was now time for some modernity. I was told that if I started using weedkillers, I’d save 14 000 Francs.’ Nicolas took this advice, but soon regretted it. ‘Within two years, I realised that the colour of the soil was changing; insects like ladybirds were no longer there; all the partridge had gone.’ Joly likened the state of the vineyards to a perpetual winter, devoid of life even in the summer.

Then fate intervened. Joly read a book on biodynamics. ‘I wasn’t attracted to the green movement, but this book fascinated me, and I had the crazy idea of trying to practice this concept’. As a result, Coulée de Serrant has been run along biodynamic lines since the early 1980s.

‘The more you help the vine to do its job, by means of a live soil, proper vine selection, and avoiding poisonous treatments, the more harmony there is. If the wine catches this harmony well, you have nothing to do in the cellar: potentially it is all there.’ He chooses to use the natural yeasts that exist on the vines to trigger the fermentation, rather than inoculating with yeast cultures: ‘Re-yeasting is absurd. Natural yeast is marked by all the subtleties of the year. If you have been dumb enough to kill your yeast, you have lost something from that year. ‘

And the wine?  A sensation, and the estate a textbook example of biodynamic wine making.  He is also at peace with his conscience.  He has put something back.

BURGUNDY

There are broadly two different approaches to farming this special place called Burgundy.  One is the way they have been doing it for 2,000 years, the way of the monks and Monsieur Joly, and the other relies on chemicals.  The problem is, we now know the chemicals kill the life in the soil, and to kill the fungi, they poison the vines. The poison goes into the sap, the sap into the grapes, the grapes make the juice, which makes the wine.  Once the chemicals are withdrawn - when a winemaker converts to organic farming, it takes the vines 3 years for the vines immune systems to recover, and approximately 12 years to restore a reasonable level of microbial activity in the soil. Then there is the evidence from the soil.  In the winter months, there are not so many visitors to Burgundy.  The vines having lost their foliage, the ground conditions are there for all to see.  The chemical vineyards are devoid of vegetal life, just the vine trunks. It is a sorry sight indeed, in this special place.

The debate between the respective merits of ‘traditional’ intensive agriculture, with chemical supports, on the one hand, and organic farming on the other, does seem to have a particular resonance in Burgundy. This is probably to do with the fact that the land was farmed for such a long time without the need for such a violent approach to nature.  And a land which is capable of producing such glorious nectar year after year, is deserving of respect. 

OUR EXPERIENCE

We moved to Gevrey Chambertin from the UK in 2010.  From late Spring onwards, we would see tractors with tall narrow wheels, and tubes protruding in every direction. In the cockpit, the drivers would often be dressed in white or green space suits, wearing masks to cover their faces. And in this sleepy little village, they hurtle along the lanes towards the vineyards at alarming speeds, where, upon arrival, all the tubes unfurl into protracted arms, extending out over several rows of vines. The tractor then straddles a single row and offloads its spray left and right.  In general terms we knew what they were doing - spraying, but spraying with what, against what, and why the need for all this protection?  This is pretty much where it all started.

We chose Gevrey Chambertin to start our business, because it was one of the world’s most famous wine villages. Until we arrived however, we did not really appreciate its historical significance.  Together with its neighbouring wine villages, Gevrey is the birthplace of the fine wine business in France. It has been thus since the 7c. It also happens to be in an area of outstanding natural beauty.  So the fact that fine wine was made here without the need for chemicals for 2,000 years, is something else that affected both our thoughts and emotions, while we watched the men in the protective clothing, with their spray machines.

On a personal level, we stopped buying treated food a long time before moving to France.  Pleasingly, more and more people in France are taking the same approach.  For some things you pay a bit more, but then know what you are eating. The volume of available organic products is increasing, and the two organic supermarkets where we shop in Dijon, have both recently moved into new and expanded premises, with improved product ranges.  However the fact that the use of pesticides in French agriculture, and wine making in particular, is still increasing, suggests that things are not changing fast enough. In 2006 the government in France launched an initiative aimed at reducing the reliance of farmers on pesticides. Their usage has increased every year since, and is still on the rise - due at least in part to the fact that the vines develop resistance, and ever stronger doses and quantities are needed to achieve the required result.  On respectable producers web sites, you will find every convolution of language possible to conceal their polluting activities - ‘almost organic’ ‘respect for the terroir’ and such other nonsense. In a sense, it is encouraging that they feel the need to resort to such subterfuge.

CHANGE CULTURE

As recent events in Europe and the US show  - it is the people who bring about the change, not the politicians. The agro chemical industry is a very powerful lobby, and French farmers inactivity in the face of a generally laudable initiative by the government, tends to confirm that the farmers are not going to be the agent of change - and why should they, if their conscience does not take them in that direction?  Things will only change as consumers stop buying treated products.  When a majority of people of different philosophical make ups, lose patience with the status quo - a gradual build up of sentiment, that finally blows the lid off the pot. A bit like the French Revolution really!