Demeter Certification | Bodega Can Feliu

Details: Published: 23 December 2022

What is a Biodynamic Wine?

Biodynamic wines are made with grapes grown from Biodynamic vineyards. In addition, the wine making process surpasses rigorous quality standards. Demeter certifies the Biodynamic quality.

The biodynamic wine satisfies a clientele who demands excellence. Demeter offers these demanding clients transparency related to the origin and production of the wine.

Several bottles of wine and glasses on a table on a terrace with a view

To attain Demeter Certification, one must be in possession of the Ecological Cultivation Certificate. Furthermore:

Cultivating the Agricultural Organism

Every agro-ecosystem converges to create an Agricultural Organism. The development of this process cannot just be a “monocultivated” system; everything cultivated adjacent, livestock rearing, together with all of their connected processes form the same organism and operate with the same philosophy.

This means:

· Compost produced on-site from fermented manure, plant-based fertilizers, rotated cultivation with native plants and animals integrated.

· The use of homeopathic products that revitalize and invigorate the soil, improving its fertility.

·The work involves the lunar, planetary and cosmic cycles in the planting, pruning and all other associated processes. This is the same process used by our ancestors, in traditional agriculture.

· External fertilizers are not incorporated. Only fertilizers derived from the ecosystem are utilized.

· Careful attention is paid to the surrounding environment (e.g., fungal infections like mildew. The amount of copper metal permitted in ecological agriculture is up to 6 Kg/Ha per year, yet the biodynamical agriculture only permits half this amount 3 Kg/Ha per year).

Wine making with Demeter Criteria

The restrictions and limitations for wine making are higher than the existing qualifications for “Bio and Ecological” wines.

Some differences between Ecological and Biodynamical wines include:

Procedures	Parameter	Authorised for Ecological production	Authorised for Biodynamical production
Clarifying agent	Animal jelly	Yes	No
	Fish tails	Yes	No
	Tannins	Yes	No
	Potassium caseinate	Yes	No
	Silicon dioxide	Yes	No
Deacidification agent	Calcium carbonate	Yes	No
	Calcium tartrate	Yes	No
Additives	Ascorbic acid	Yes	No
Various	Arabic gum	Yes	No
	Acacia gum (E414)	Yes	No
	Oak chips	Yes	No
	Potassium alginate	Yes	No

· Sulfur dioxide use must be minimized.

· Processes which require a huge amount of energy or raw material must be avoided.

· Physical methods are always preferable to chemical ones.

· All the processed co-products (e.g. organic residue or residual waters) must be treated in a way which minimizes the negative effects on the environment.

Biodynamic wine making is a philosophy, not just a set of criteria. Wines demand we maintain the highest standards. Every step in the process meets these demanding criteria; all of our production processes are within the Demeter’s Certification standards at all times.

Only products which have the Demeter Seal of Approval guarantee the quality of the Biodynamic Certified Process

*Demeter International is the only ecological association that has established a world-wide network of independent certification bodies.