I rather think of them as organic, but with the ability to call 911 if disaster (disease etc) looms.So many of our wines are in this category, for instance virtually all of New Zealand has reached this level or above and so we can mention Chard Farm, Mt Difficulty, Peregrine, Morton Estate, Oyster Bay, Goldwater, Matua Valley and Spy Valley.Most of our wines from Beringer, Chateau St. Jean, Souverain, Stags Leap Winery, Meridian, Veramonte, Undurraga, Rosemount Estate and Torres in Spain are at this level.Then there are what I like to call the “Super Sustainable”, like Rodney Strong in Sonoma that is sustainable and totally carbon neutral with the largest solar array of any winery on the planet.Solar powered Shafer Vineyards with their pure farming, recycled water, owls and hawks for rodent control, are another. Justin in Paso Robles uses no chemicals and even farms biodynamically but they have not sought official classification.Most of us are very familiar with the term Organic Farming and know that it practices ecologically balanced management of soil fertility, crop rotation and totally shuns man-made pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilisers. When working with animals they avoid synthetic hormones and antibiotics.Kai Schubert with his top award winning New Zealand Pinot Noirs and Pascal Jolivet, with his popular Loire Valley Sancerre and Pouilly Fume, are both certified organic.One farmer put it this way: “Humanity has lost its spiritual connection with the earth that sustains us and it is very important that we turn back to the natural rhythms of the Earth and the Cosmos. Everything is connected and when we honour the Earth we honour ourselves and this is where true healing begins.”Biodynamics began back in Poland in the 1920s, before organic, when a group of farmers became concerned about the environmental effects of new chemicals that boosted growth speed, plant size and killed the natural life in their soils.A gentleman by the name of Rudolf Steiner (you may have heard of his Steiner schools) developed a spiritual/practical philosophy for farming that in a way considers our universe as a single living entity and it is called Biodynamics.In a nut shell I like to say that it shuns all the modern chemicals and therefore does not destroy the land, but it also restores and heals the natural “terroir” and character of a particular plot.In the case of a vineyard the wear and tear of centuries of farming may have taken much of the unique individual-ness away and one wine tastes much the same as the one across the road. Who am I to doubt whether star light falling on the vines has an effect or if our planet breathes out or in during certain periods?Indeed the Biodynamic calendar is very strict on these and so many other situations and it instructs when the moon, planets and stars are in certain alignment and how this effects the times for spraying natural preparations, grafting, picking, leaf thinning and so on. Our supplier of Rhone Valley wines, Maison Chapoutier, is the largest biodynamic farmer in France.The Burgundy firm of Joseph Drouhin farms all its land in France and Oregon in this manner and uses horses for farm work.Michael Seresin in the Marlborough region of New Zealand also avoids all use of motorised machines and consumes no meats himself because of the environmental impact. His beautiful Sauvignon Blanc is a benchmark in Bermuda.Robert Sinskey in Napa Valley drives his tractor with recycled cooking oil and literally brings in the sheep when it is time to mow. Marimar Torres in Sonoma has recently been Demeter certified as biodynamic.This is the worldwide organisation that confirms that their standards have been reached.I have left some out due to space, but let me say that much of Argentina may not have the official “papers” but the dry, desert climate is so inhospitable to pests that many vineyards are ungrafted and very little in the way of pesticides is used at all.Michael Robinson is Director of Wine at Burrows, Lightbourn Ltd. He can be contacted at mrobinson@bll.bm or on 295-0176. Burrows, Lightbourn have stores in Hamilton(Front Street East, 295-1554), Paget (Harbour Road, 236-0355) and St George’s (York Street, 297-0409). A selection of their wines, beers and spirits are available on line at www.wineonline.bm