What is the difference between BIO and BIODYNAMIC?
Bio
Bio A wine from organic viticulture (called 'organic wine') is a wine made from organically farmed grapes.To obtain the Organic Agriculture label (AB label), vines must therefore be managed according to precise specifications: chemical weeding and the use of prohibited synthetic treatment products are prohibited. The vineyard is protected only with chemicals of natural origin such as sulfur dioxide (against powdery mildew) and copper sulphate (against mildew), and also with plant decoctions.
Organic wine has existed officially for a very short time (2012). Before, only viticulture was taken into account, not vinification. The official European specifications introduced in 2012 now require no synthetic or insecticide treatment in the vineyards. Recently, the EU proposed to reduce (very slightly) the inputs during winemaking. On the other hand, it allows acidification, deacidification, heat treatment, the addition of tannins, the addition of wood chips, sulfur, industrial yeasts, etc.
Biodynamic
Biodynamics encompasses the practices of organic agriculture, except that it uses exclusively biodynamic preparations such as plant decoctions, horn dung or horn silica.These preparations:
- restructure and energize the soil,
- dramatically increase the rooting of plants,
- improve the resistance of plants,
- improve the taste quality of foods.
As for the biodynamic vinification, only the collage of the wine and the filtration, the chaptalisation (addition of sugar) are authorized only for the sparkling and the industrial yeasts. The use of sulfur doses is lower than for organic wine.
Note that a third category exists: natural wines with few or no inputs (such as sulfur) are added during its vinification. No legislation around its exact definition exists yet.