Paper short abstract:

Biodynamic vintners in Burgundy, France and the US Pacific Northwest manifest science and magic, artisanal luxury production, and environmental ethics. Like other artisan organic products, biodynamic wine is priced higher than industrial competitors, while claiming a magical moral higher ground.

Paper long abstract:

Biodynamic viticulture involves planting and harvesting wine grapes by lunar cycles, and sometimes marketing wine by the lunar calendar as well. It uses soil amendments that resemble homeopathic medicines involving esoteric practices such as burying cow horns packed with manure. Developed by Waldorf School founder Rudolph Steiner, biodynamic agriculture has a growing constituency among both European winemakers and New World vintners, among them producers of pinot noir in both prestigious vineyards in Burgundy, France and the Willamette Valley of Oregon in the US Pacific Northwest. Aligned with the organic and “natural” wine movements, biodynamics stakes a claim to environmental ethics and terroir, or “taste of place,” as an agricultural practice that eschews industrial fertilizers and herbicides, and that prefers “native” yeasts to those produced commercially. At the same time, in both France and the US, these wines, positioned as high-quality local alternatives to lower priced, mass-produced wine, are frequently priced (well) above the discount range. This paper examines the discursive dynamics by which winemakers, tastemakers, and consumers navigate a magical moral high ground with respect to contradictory local-global and class relations.