Zack Klug (Liten Buffel): Sympathetic Magic (Wine Zine 02)
Winemaker Zack Klug on the seasonal, optimistic nervousness of biodynamic viticulture
Originally Published November 2018
Bullshit. Sympathetic magic. An amalgamation of old practices. Astrological polyculture agronomy. All arguable truths when discussing biodynamic farming—well, except bullshit. It’s actually shit from a lactating cow. What began as a naturalist farming theory from an Austrian esotericist has become a religion to some and marketing to others. A notion of farming by season, by moon, by nature—then twisted by capitalism. I have a strong affinity for biodynamics; for using what grows near the farm to heal the farm alongside minerals and metals of Earth. For me, biodynamics is balanced farming in a tumultuous age.
I am certainly not an authority in the wine community. I'm just a kid from the other side of New York State swinging for the fences one last time before I accept the local common fate of factory work. I don’t come from a family of wine, I don't have much in the way of a local mentor. I came to biodynamics for the same reasons that I came to minimalism—access. A few handfuls of cow manure are free, and horsetail grows in abundance around here. I also don't like being told what to do. Being a member of the East Coast industry where, when customers aren’t around, most grape growers will say that bioD/organic farming is impossible would have had me drinking the kool-aid even if I didn't already believe in it. Coming up in the industry in Niagara has been challenging. Naturalism is counterculture here. Distribution to metro areas is counter culture here. In one of the warmest, driest parts of New York, where even amateurs can grow grapes, I’m alone on an island without community.
“For me, biodynamics is balanced farming in a tumultuous age.”
I don't just practice biodynamics because it’s obverse here. I do it because I believe that soil health and mycorrhizal symbiosis is the foundation of viticultural integrated pest management. I believe that silica is beneficial for the jasmonic acid pathway in plants. I use biodynamic preps because many organic certified sprays are just formulations of those preparations. Treating your farm as a living organism offers an implicit increased state of awareness. You are in the vineyard more, paying greater attention to each individual vine. Biodynamics is seasonal, optimistic nervousness wrapped in metaphysical dogma.
“I am afraid that we are deep in the gentleman farmer stage of biodynamic viticulture. Biodynamic farming is slipping into something that is just another product tank mixed with organic sprays or holistically applied by the wealthy as an “in addition to” farm practice of massive corporate vineyards.”
I am, by nature, a cynic, and when it comes to biodynamics, I am especially skeptical regarding the reasons it’s applied. What started as a belief in your farm as an individual existence has conformed to a capitalistic structure of spray kits and calendars. I am far from an expert on biodynamics, and barely a successful practitioner, but I am afraid that we are deep in the gentleman farmer stage of biodynamic viticulture. Biodynamic farming is slipping into something that is just another product tank mixed with organic sprays or holistically applied by the wealthy as an “in addition to” farm practice of massive corporate vineyards. If biodynamics is rooted in naturalism and poly/permaculture then what could possibly be green about a 150-acre vineyard? How can weekly sprays with diesel tractors be good for Earth because what's in the tank was dynamized? Biodynamics has been lost in translation. It’s archaic practices combined into a readily digestible book by an Austrian racist and sold to us by his disciples. The very beginnings of modern biodynamics are in question. Will gentleman farming and capitalism stunt naturalism again? Can biodynamic teachings be restructured by less problematic people for an Earth fully engaged in a battle with climate change?
I certainly don't have the answers to these questions, but I do believe in progress. I believe in biodynamics, and I believe that we are still at the beginning of crafting what that means.