Once in a while you turn a bottle and find a printed “Respekt Biodyn” with a circle around it. It is clear that Respekt is “respect”, it is clear that Biodyn is “biodynamics”, but why create another association when there are already plenty of others? Demeter first certified biodynamics in 1928, Biodyvin started working in 1995, Respekt became the third organization in the world to certify biodynamics. The Respekt Biodyn logo is on the bottles of a lot of interesting makers whose wines you recognize and love: from Clemens Busch to Hirsch, from Claus Preisinger to Sattlerhof, from Wittman to Judith Beck. I put Austrian Fred Leumer on the air to ask what Respekt is and what to “pair” it with.
Did we create Respekt after having a couple of glasses of wine? Fair to say, all our decisions involve a glass of wine in one way or another, but here it’s a bit more serious. In 2003, which was a very easy year for winemaking we asked ourselves, “Is this really all we can do?”, meaning how easy it is for us to make a simple wine and find the right balance of components, including fertilizers and so on; and there you have it, no problem at all. Biodynamics has proven to be a way out for our group when wine became just a boring activity because there was too much technology involved. With that “tech” approach, wines from different estates and even from different regions turn out almost identical. Biodynamics has become a way for us to improve and complicate the character of our wines.
At some point back then we heard about the esoteric aspects of biodynamics, but we had no idea what it was in practical terms. We found a consultant we knew from the States, Andrew Laurent, who was living in Zurich at the time, and invited him to join us in 2005. A few of his seminars convinced us to start a gradual conversion — I’m not just talking about my winery, our interest was for the whole group. Every month he flew in to give us more information about biodynamics. We created two groups in two sub-regions, one on the Danube and one near the Hungarian border, each group started learning about biodynamics from the very basics. It was so unusual and fascinating that I decided we were definitely going to change our system.
After the first full week of immersion in the topic, 12 households immediately decided to switch to new ways of working. That was the beginning of the Respekt Biodyn group. We still continue to learn and meet once a year as a group, which has grown substantially. Biodynamics is not just a matter of downloading a “manual” and simply following recipes for mixing preparations, this is a superficial perception.
Today, the Biodyvin (France) and Respekt Biodyn (Austria) associations are the only independent certification programs for Biodynamics besides Demeter. Respekt was created about 18 years ago, Biodyvin is slightly older — in 1995. Thus, today there are three of these biodynamic certifying organizations. And I think it is important to have this diversity of certifications. Notice that Respekt and Biodyvin only certify wine while Demeter certifies all kinds of agricultural products, from potatoes to fruit. It allows us to be a little bit more focused, because still wine is a special product. So we have a little bit more questions for farmers than has Demeter.
The reason why we did everything as a group was because of our strong friendship ties. We decided then that the group should grow, albeit slowly. And it’s what actually happened: we started as 12-13 estates, now we are double that. Another difference is that we care about the quality of the wines in our group. It’s hard to explain, we want all Respekt members to have a clear understanding of the overall quality of their wines. That’s not all: we also take into account what kind of people own the wineries. It is difficult for us to “certify” people with whom it’s impossible to communicate in a civilized manner or to openly discuss the details of the work. Therefore, as you rightly pointed out, we want to remain a kind of club, but an open club.
The first Respekt certification was held in 2009. First we signed the organic certificate. It’s important to know that the European Union only certifies organic production, the “green leaf” that everyone knows. They don’t touch on biodynamics. Biodynamics is certified by private associations. And today all three groups — Demeter, Respekt and Biodyvin — work according to the same principles related to Rudolf Steiner’s vision. The main concept is that all wineries should operate independent of external factors, without buying fertilizers, yeasts, so that the microorganisms in the winery are only their own. With biodynamics you are more “local” whereas with organics you think more about making sure your product is safe for health.
The process of accepting new wineries is always similar, in Austria we have two groups and we meet these two groups, we invite people from the “outside” who work organically or are Demeter-certified. Sooner or later some of them ask permission to join Respekt. Next follows our internal discussion. If we think the winemaker is worthy to join the group, we invite him/her to a special seminar on biodynamics and different aspects of the work. And then the winemaker receives an official invitation to join the group and starts working on the conversion.
To officially become “biodynamic” Respekt association certification is enough. Legally, Demeter, Biodyvin and Respekt are on the same level. All three are private associations and work to specific standards. The certification itself (wine analysis) is done by a special company that also handles organic certification. Any winery claiming to be “biodynamic” must at least be organic, this is the most basic level. The certification happens once a year, at that time there is control of all the documentation: we have to collect and submit invoices for everything we bought during the year, such as sulfur or copper. Next, they look at the quantity purchased and divide it by the vineyards area. For example, if you bought an insignificant amount of artificial yeasts it’s no big deal per the entire vineyard. But the list of what you are allowed to buy is very limited: you can’t, for example, buy enzymes, artificial fertilizers, you can’t buy fungicides, etc. Besides, it is very easy to understand when someone is using these things. Every few years, the control also comes to the vineyards and collects leaves for analysis, from them it is immediately clear what is done in the vineyards and how it is done. They also check the winery itself and look for “forbidden goods” there.
As for the personal qualities of the applicants, trust and the ability to talk openly about all aspects of the production cycle are crucial. This is why people with difficult personalities are unlikely to be accepted into Respekt. We don’t have to be friends and meet every week, but there must be a common understanding. In biodynamic winemaking humans have a crucial role to play, so in biodynamics we are not talking about “estate conversion” but “people conversion”. Because you have to start thinking differently. To give you an example: according to Respekt rules we do all biodynamic preparations by hand, because we want the human factor and emotions to play a role in this.
The ideal situation is when all the wines of a particular winery correspond to the Respekt’s quality criteria and are biodynamic. However, it has not always been possible. Initially, as a Loimer winery, I had both biodynamic, organic and conventional wines because some of the grapes were being purchased. However, we soon decided that we should not have conventional grapes in our system at all. So Respekt members today make two types of wines — biodynamic and, rarely, organic, if someone has to buy grapes or replants a new vineyard that needs to be converted later. We trust the winemakers deciding where to put organic and biodynamic produce, but, importantly, they absolutely cannot be mixed. The ultimate goal is, though, to have all wines in biodynamics.
An important aspect of our group’s evolution is that we are increasingly taking the unity of animals and plants literally: more and more winemakers are breeding and working with their own wildlife, more than half of the wineries have now acquired sheep, for example, to use for grass control.
We don’t expect or demand any general style of wines with the Respekt logo, we don’t hold any special tastings or force anyone to follow any sort of tracing paper. Control and tasting of the wines takes place only at the level of local legislation of a particular appellation, i.e., say, “does this wine look like Camptal?”, and so on. We try to respect the winemaker’s individual style, it can be a “natural” or a reductive style wine or a filtered wine.
While we don’t have any desired number of Respekt member wineries, we don’t have any office to grow globally, we are focusing on wineries in the German-speaking parts of Europe – Austria, Germany, northern Italy, maybe in the future, Switzerland.
In the end, what is important to know about Respekt for those who drink our wines: you get wines with human emotions.