What is biodynamics really??

Frequently, when asked what the difference between organic and biodynamic winegrowing is, I—and most colleagues—tend to answer by listing what we do differently. Usually the explanation is technical: we use slightly less copper in the vineyards, and we apply the two key biodynamic preparations—Horn Manure (500) and Horn Silica (501). For many people, that answer is sufficient, and the conversation ends there.

But the truly interesting question is not what we do. It is why we do it.

The amounts of these preparations we apply are so small, that it becomes clear this isn’t about chemistry. Horn Silica, for example, is used at roughly 5 grams per hectare. Compared to the biomass and soil mass of an entire vineyard, this is clearly a homeopathic dose. And yet, for those who work with the land, the difference is unmistakable.

The aim of these preparations is to enhance and harmonize what Rudolf Steiner called the etheric forces of the vineyard. These are the formative, life-giving forces that guide growth, resilience, and vitality. For anyone familiar with Traditional Chinese Medicine or Ayurveda, this idea isn’t exotic at all—the etheric corresponds directly to Qi and Prana, the subtle life energies described in those traditions.

And just like Qi and Prana, the etheric has two primary polarities.

In TCM these are Yin (earthy, nourishing, inward, moist) and Yang (bright, warming, outward, ripening).

In Ayurveda, the closest analogues are Kapha (stability, earth-water) and Pitta (fire-light, transformation).

Horn Manure (500) strengthens the Yin/Kapha side of the vine—rooting, moistening, anchoring, deepening the plant’s connection to soil life.

Horn Silica (501) strengthens the Yang/Pitta side—clarifying, uplifting, ripening, guiding the plant towards light and expression.

The idea is simple: if you can strengthen and balance these two poles of life force in the vineyard, the vines become more resilient, the wines become more vibrant and expressive, and—perhaps most interestingly—the consumer of the wine receives a subtle energetic benefit as well. In biodynamics, the vitality of the land is not merely an agricultural matter; it is part of a continuum that includes those who eventually drink the wine.

Now, it is true that modern peer-reviewed science has not (yet) confirmed the existence of Qi, Prana, or etheric forces. Nor has it offered a framework for how one might measure them. But the absence of scientific proof is not the absence of a phenomenon. Many people feel these energies simply through everyday experience:

• If you’ve ever been for acupuncture and felt a wave of sensation—like a ripple, a charge, or a line of warmth—moving up or down the body from where the needle went in, that is the unmistakable experience of Qi in motion.

• If you’ve sat in meditation and suddenly felt your body become spacious, warm, and subtly “alive” from within, that is Prana settling and expanding.

• If you’ve practiced yoga and noticed your hands tingling or your spine gently buzzing after certain postures or breathwork, that is the energetic body becoming active.

• For those of us that are a bit more sensitive, we may be able to feel where the energy body of another person or a tree starts – and that boundary is very clear.

Biodynamics works with that layer of reality.

It recognises that farming is not just a mechanical process but a living relationship between land, plants, cosmic rhythms, and the subtle energetic forces that animate all life. And it trusts that when you support the vineyard on this deeper level, the wine expresses a purity, a resonance, and a digestibility that no amount of technical intervention can replicate.

At the end of the day, you don’t have to “believe” in any of this. You can simply taste it. Biodynamics lives or dies not by theory, but by the vitality and digestibility of the wines it produces. My invitation is simply this: keep an open mind, have a glass of wine and see what your own senses tell you.

Cheers, Hoss