Wine is a diverse ecosystem. Unlike most other alcoholic beverages, except perhaps beer and kombucha, wine contains an active biome that makes each bottle unique. When made with this ecosystem in mind, each wine develops a unique personality. So, how does one protect this ecosystem, to allow the wine to express itself? This is where organic, biodynamic and natural winemaking comes in. The words are often used interchangeably, but despite what you may have heard on the grape vine, they are actually quite different practices.
So, what’s the difference between them?

Organic Winemaking
Organic winemaking is the practice of making wine according to organic regulations, which forbids the use of certain synthetic chemicals in the winemaking process. Similar to the organic practices in most other product manufacturing, the rules are about what you cannot do. Mainly, it’s what you cannot add, and what you cannot clean your produce or equipment with.
The Rules of Organic
Organic standards are governed by international regulations, the main ones being the European (EU) and United States (NOP) Regulations. The NOP standards are the stricter ones. The products you can and can’t use are constantly changing as the rule-makers learn more about the dangers of chemical products that each industry is using. As much as we would like there to be, there is no wine-specific governing body for organic wine, so most of the rules we have to follow in winemaking are the same that are being used by most other products made from fresh ingredients.
Some of these rules are things like:
- the amount of sulphur you can add to your wine as a preservative
- what detergents you cannot use to clean your cellar equipment, and
- what elements you cannot spray on your vineyard to manage fungus and pests.
Of course, no herbicides, pesticides, or any “-cides” of any kind, and no GMO material – although what they really mean is no genetically engineered plant material, as all grape vines as we know them today are technically genetically modified through selective breeding.
While they’re quick to tell you what you cannot add, contrary to popular belief, organic principles tell you very little about how to improve your practices or production. That’s where biodynamic comes in.
Biodynamic Winemaking
The Biodynamic Calendar
In biodynamic agriculture, invented by Rudolph Steiner, the farm is viewed in the image of an organism, with its own personality or “farm individuality”. Processes and activities are governed by the biodynamic calendar, which uses astrological analysis to predict what cosmic forces will be acting on the farm at certain times, so that we can perform activities on the optimal days of the year for success.
The calendar has fruit days, root days, leaf days, and flower days. For example, fruit days are known to be good days for harvest, and for best tasting wine. As weird as it sounds, it actually works; wine tastes so much better on fruit days, and a bit lifeless on root days. Some will argue it’s a placebo effect – but trust me, we’ve done the objective testing. It’s pretty spooky.

Billy mixing a biodynamic preparation to spray on the vineyard
The Farm’s Personality
The farm’s individuality is compared to a human being standing on its head: everything below the diaphragm like the head/brain, and breathing, is located below the earth’s surface, while the belly and digestive processes are the living things above the soil. The “head-existence” below the earth’s surface works like our brain does for us, while the “belly-existence” above the surface works like our digestive system, and encompasses all the fauna and flora, and elements of water, air, and warmth, like ours.
The farm organism is viewed as a living system, influenced by earthly and cosmic forces, much like how the planets may affect human moods, or how we go through biological cycles according to the moon. The ‘below-the-earth’ and ‘above-the-earth’ components, or “polarities” of the organism need to be balanced. Like our gut health affects our mental health as humans, the balance of these two “polarities” is very important for overall farm health.
Biodynamic Preparations
To balance the polarities, you make use of ‘biodynamic preparations’, which are either sprayed onto the vineyard or added to compost in homoeopathic doses to improve the health of the vineyard. For example, the BD 500 is cow manure in a cow horn, buried and aged underground over the autumn and winter, and used to help form healthy roots. The BD 501 is also made in a cow horn, but instead of manure it’s finely powdered quartz crystal mixture, which is similarly prepared to promote healthy photosynthesis.
As wacky as it sounds to some, these practices promote connection between people and land, giving us a better understanding of the change in seasons and the needs of the farm.
To translate that character into the wine, we use natural winemaking.
Natural Winemaking
Conventional winemakers will often disregard the individuality of the farm ecosystem, and use a recipe of additives, modifiers and correctives to shape the wine into a clinically crafted product so that each bottle is consistent with the next, year after year.
But what about the wine’s personality? We use natural winemaking not only to reduce the number of additives in the wine to make a healthier product, but also to allow the wine to express it character.

Freshly harvested grapes, the residence of many strains of indigenous yeast
Native Yeasts
Natural winemaking is essentially the absence of human intervention. If you pick grapes and leave them in a bucket, they will spontaneously ferment into wine. That is natural winemaking at its core: the fermentation of grapes into wine using only native yeasts – that is, the yeast found on the grapes in the vineyard, not the yeast from a packet. And to allow this yeast to thrive, you need to avoid adding things that will kill it, like too much sulphur and other additives and chemicals, which is why natural wine also has to be organic. At the end of the day, you end up with a much more expressive wine.
So, if it’s so simple, then why doesn’t everyone do it?
There are lots of different strains of yeast – especially “wild” yeast – some of which produce strange flavours that are not particularly pleasurable to the palate. Also, yeast are not the only bacteria found on grapes, and some of the others also produce compounds that are not particularly delightful – like acetic acid bacteria, which turn wine into vinegar.
It’s About Balance
The nuance of natural winemaking comes in to managing the balance of the wine ecosystem. One needs to pay close attention to temperature, acidity, pH, and manage yeast nutrients, so that the desirable yeasts are the ones that proliferate to ferment the grapes, producing delicious flavours, and avoiding gross ones. It requires a lot more attention to detail and a deep understanding of wine biochemistry.
Without the use of correctives, it also means there is a higher risk of things going awry, and producing a “funky” wine that is challenging to drink. That is why often it’s easier to just use the conventional packaged yeast, because you know what you’re going to get. In our eyes, the risk is worth it.
In Conclusion
To bring it all together, natural wine is always organic, but organic wine isn’t always natural. Organic practices focus on what winemakers avoid adding, while natural winemaking celebrates letting the wine develop its true character with minimal intervention. Biodynamic winemaking goes a step further by nourishing the vineyard through thoughtful, holistic practices. By honouring the vineyard as a living ecosystem, a combination of these practices helps create wines that are more expressive and alive. Each bottle reflects not just the grape varietals, but the personality of the farm.
