Isn’t it much more time-consuming and expensive, though, to grow grapes biodynamically?
Time-consuming, yes, and costly, initially, if you spend up big on under-vine weeding machines and your own whiz-bang flowform for stirring the 500. But according to David Paxton, a large-scale McLaren Vale grower and winemaker who has converted all his vineyards to BD: ‘We reckon once we’re on top of it, even though it’s labour intensive, it’s going to cost us less than working along the chemical path.’ Paxton’s viticulturist, Toby Bekkers, is also positive about the labour-intensive side of BD: ‘One of the best things about it is that we’re in the vineyard all the time now – and we’re having a lot of fun,’ he says. ‘It’s reinvigorated the people who work here.’ All of which can only be good for wine quality.
