Bio-Dynamic winemaking? – Is the only agricultural system that doesn’t deplete or take anything away from the soils, and the oldest natural farming system in existence. Everything is done in harmony with the moon and stars.  Bergstrom Winery writes - Biodynamic farming dates back to the 1920's as the original organic movement marrying Rudolph Steiner's Anthroposophic ideals and astrological influences on plants, soils, water and stone. Biodynamic farming ensures unique and pure terroirs which are alive with energy, feeling and not poisoned with the herbicides, insecticides, pesticides or fungicides which are routinely abused around the world.

Doug Tunnell, the owner and winemaker of Brick House, describes Bio-dynamic:  He says he wakes up every morning surrounded by 34,000 grape vines.  “You begin to look at the world by what happens to those vines.  They are subject to rhythms, to patterns, to waves, if you will, that are very obvious to me---the phases of the moon, the passage of the seasons, the positions of the sun in the sky.  He continues, “When I see the moon at nine in the morning in the western sky on a clear day, I can tell you that we need to pick grapes: it’s harvest time now.  Because that’s where the moon is, year in, year out, at about the time that we pick the grapes.  The same with the sun: the sun is low in the sky.  It’s just a matter of observing and thinking about what we see today.  It’s October 14^th.  Look at the shadows.  The light is very different now.  The vines are going to sleep.  This is not light that is going to stimulate photosynthesis.  This is light that is going to allow them to go into hibernation.  This is just a way of thinking…That’s what bio-dynamics has allowed me to do” 

His vineyard is not only organically certified, it is farmed according to biodynamic principles, which he says, is similar to a homeopathic approach, or in the “old French song that says that the best fertilizer in the vineyard is the footprint of the owner.  As Tunnell does not irrigate, Brick House wines are pure expressions of each vintage.

Josh Bergstrom says, 'We use natural elemental spray solutions to combat disease, indigenous predatory insects and botanical teas to control pests and organic compost to build and sustain a healthy, balanced soil structure...What we do and when is attuned to moon phases so we know when the sap is falling or rising in the vine.  This maximizes the plant's h3alth and retention of energy for growth and to ward off disease.'

The Philosophy. they do not believe in over-processing a wine, the more natural a wine is bottled, the better it will be when consumed. 

Wineries practicing Bio-Dynamic are Brick House, Bergstrom and Maysara.