MONTIRIUS GIGONDAS
Montirius is a sizeable 55 hectare estate that has been run by the same family for five generations. For the last 15 years Christine and Eric Saurel have taken their domaine in an organic direction, converting to biodynamics in 1996. They've taken things quite seriously: in 2002 a new winery was built, with vats built with concrete made from dynamized water.
Maybe they meant organically dynamited water?
Martin
LOL
In general quackery implies deceiving someone to the point of causing them harm while claiming that some good is being done.
In the case of BioD, the stuff is certainly (self-)deception, but nobody gets hurt, and in general the wines are very good. I personally dont like Montirius wines, and the story of making cement with dynamized water made me LOL, but I dont think one can compare BioD to the numerous forms of quackery that truly hurt people.
Wacky, not quacky.
But couldn't the same be said for organic/biologique wines? At least avoiding nasty pesticides makes some sense but the New Age mysticism doesn't.
I suppose it's a matter of definition. Homeopathy is generally considered to be quackery but its believers don't consider themselves frauds. A number of biodynamic practices are a mixture of homeopathy and astrology.
I suppose it's my training as a scientist that looks with scorn upon such lunacy, and that term applies since they follow the moon phases amongst other things. It has even infected the world of the professional taster as, I understand, Tesco and Marks & Spenser staff divide the calendar into fruit, flower, leaf and root days, based on lunar cycles, and taste only on the first two.
As you say, it's harmless but I see no reason to encourage it. Graham
But you must understand that if dynamized water is not used in the concrete the cosmic energy would not be able to get to the wine.
I think that is when they give trade tastings. The calendar is available in the book "When wine tastes best". Yours for $8.00.
Or you can read my blog article with the same subject line, which adopts a more scientific approach:
Harmless maybe. But it all takes time, effort and money which could be better directed elsewhere.
The point is, prescribing homeopathic treatment for cancer or tuberculosis is criminal, but practicing Steinerian voodoo hurts nobody. I share your scorn for lunatic pseudoscience, but BioD applied to wine is not criminal, it is just marketing babble. If Tesco wants to get on tho voodoo bandwagon, it is no worse than the rest of the marketing and management BS that goes around; sure, it affects careers, but it is not life and death.
In the wine world, there are many other bits of useless superstructure that we can all do without, BioD is probably the least harmful. Obession with guides, with good and bad years, with points, with fads, all these are much more harmful to the economy of the wine producer.
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