Welcoming the future… one plot at a time with biodynamics

While the harvest represents a highlight of the sixteen Gérard Bertrand vineyards and estates, this period expresses above all the result of a whole year of care and attention to the plots cultivated in biodynamics.  

 "There is no great wine without great grapes. This is the hallmark of the house. To have great grapes, you need that alchemy which takes into account the notion of terroir", explains Gilles de Baudus, who since 2002 has managed, coordinated and implemented the conversion of the Gérard Bertrand estates to biodynamics, alongside the eponymous winemaker. Biodynamics, by taking into account the three essential factors of vintage, soil and human intervention, redefines the foundations of viticulture: "The biodynamist's work is to use homeopathic preparations at particular moments in order to give an impulse to the ecosystem that allows us to channel the life process surrounding the life of the soil, the development of the plant and the ripeness of the grape towards what seems to us balanced and harmonious. From there, we simply need to accompany the living process with a different conception from the conventional system (command, direct and submit). Here, we seek to magnify and accompany. We do not make wine in the cellar."

The work takes place as much in the vineyard as in the cellar

A modus operandi confirmed by Gérard Planas, Director of the Estates, who reaffirms the powerful and inseparable link between the excellence of the vineyard's health in 2021 and "the daily vigilance and attention to accompanying each vine plant through to harvest by walking every plot". A natural approach that stimulates the vineyard's natural defences against climatic stresses, such as water scarcity, or parasitic threats. "The applications of biodynamic preparations followed one another in step with the seasons and planetary alignments: Maria Thun compost in autumn, Horn Manure in spring and Horn Silica during the vegetative growth phases of the vine".

Biodynamics in service of nature

Monitoring the living, the care and attentive watch over each plot naturally lead to the harvest season, during which winemakers walk their estates every day in search of the optimum ripeness of the grapes, balancing sugar content and acidity, sugar and tannin maturity, while keeping in mind the wine they wish to produce. Gilles de Baudus stresses this point: "Every vintage is unique; we do not seek to reproduce the previous one. Each wine has a spirit that takes into account both the terroir and the vintage." From one terroir to another, bunch by bunch, hand in hand to create wines of excellence.