“That is a much-argued point,” Verney says, laughing. “Shall I say, it possibly makes a psychological difference, if nothing else.” Verney says that while he’s noticed differences in the taste of wine from day to day, he’s hard-pressed to attribute it to the cycle of the moon. There are a host of factors that can affect the taste of wine, from air pressure to weather to ambient smells and many more having to do with the drinker.
Personally, Verney doesn’t tend to follow the calendar. “I wouldn’t go to a dinner party on a leaf day and refuse a glass of wine,” he says. But even so, he’s not taking any chances in business. “I subscribe to the belief that if it works in the vineyard, with the days of planting, there’s going to be a better day to drink it.”
The biodynamic wine calendar is part of a larger biodynamic agriculture movement. Like organic farming in its attention to sustainability, biodynamic farming sees the farm as a single living organism that, much like a forest, is self-nourishing. Unlike organic farming, however, some biodynamic practices seem to border on voodoo. For instance, farmers might plant and seed during specific phases of the moon, apply a mixture of yarrow fermented in a stag’s bladder to their compost or bury a bull’s horn stuffed with cow dung in their land over a winter, dig it up in spring, and then mix the fermented manure with water and spray it on the soil.
Biodynamic farming was first outlined in the 1920s in the work of Austrian spiritualist lecturer and philosopher Rudolf Steiner, who catalogued best practices among farmers in
Europe and championed the more organic ones. Since then, it has evolved into a system of belief that has attracted ecologically minded farmers as well as fans nearly religious in their devotion.
Ron Laughton is an Australian vineyard owner who has been in the wine business for more than 30 years. Laughton started out in organic production and then turned to biodynamic farming 12 years ago, producing wines under his Jasper Hill label. And, he says, what sounds like witchcraft — including the calendar — is actually just ancient practicality.
“I’m reaping the benefit of the wisdom of all those ancient farmers,” he says.
The principle behind biodynamic farming is the same behind the calendar: that from the vine to the bottle, wine is a living organism. “If the moon can affect a liquid — water in an ocean — why can’t that same gravitational [pull] have some effect on, for example, our blood pressure? Or, in a plant, the sap pressure?” Laughton explains. “Even if the effect is so minute that we can’t measure it, I can believe that the moon has an effect … and I can see it in the vineyard, by tasting the fruit.”
Wine produced biodynamically also enjoys a strong reputation among wine dealers and experts. “If you’re going to adopt biodynamics, you’ve got to really care about what you’re doing,” says Jamie Goode, a U.K.-based wine journalist who also holds a degree in plant biology. “It’s an investment. People who invest in vineyards like this, they usually care, so the wine tastes better.”
But to Goode, the calendar is “the least compelling area” of biodynamics. “It’s an interesting idea, but it’s all a bit pseudo science-y,” he says, noting that while his fellow critics are aware of the calendar, it tends not to be a consideration at tastings.
That said, he understands why high street chains and other wine retailers would hedge their bets and use the calendar to schedule tastings. “If there’s no particular reason to put [the tasting] on certain days, then why not put them on the biodynamic days?” he asks. “If there’s a chance it’s true, then it’s worth it.”
Still, not all wine sellers are willing to embrace the lunar calendar. At the cheekily named Philglas & Swiggot, one of London’s premier independent wine merchants, owner Mike Rogers says that though there may be a nugget of truth in the lunar-cycle tastings, he’s “never, ever, ever decided to postpone a tasting” to best match up with the lunar calendar.
“I think it’s borderline anal-retentive,” laughs Rogers, who’s been in the wine business for 19 years. “There are so many complexities in the wine business — [there’s] such a complicated, formidable knowledge requirement — if we were to throw in the biodynamic lunar calendar, our customers would flee from the shop, pulling their hair out, saying, ‘No, no, no, I’ve had enough.’ ”
But he’s aware of the debate amongst oenophiles and knows people who follow the calendar religiously. Recently, Rogers was at a local wine bar when he got to talking with the owner. “[He] asked what wine I was drinking, and I said Burgundy. He went and looked at the calendar, and said, ‘Oh, it should be all right today,’” Rogers remembers. “And as it turned out, I was very disappointed with the wine.”
And at the end of the day, say winemakers, retailers and drinkers, it is the taste that matters. As Laughton puts it, “A faulty wine is a faulty wine — doesn’t matter what day you taste it.”