If you’re concerned about what you consume, and its impact on the planet, and you enjoy a good wine, then biodynamic viticulture is for you!

WA’s Diana and Kevin Cullen are winemakers with a difference.

They see their role as ‘caretaker to the fruit’ – their desire is to search for the best quality expression of the vineyard in each bottle of wine, to realise its full potential. And that’s why they decided to go not just organic, but biodynamic. 

After being certified organic by the Biological Farmers Association of Australia in 2003, the couple was inspired by a seminar conducted by the Biodynamic Association of Australia.  And that’s when they decided to take a more holistic approach and try biodynamic farming.

What is biodynamics?
Biodynamic farming was developed by the late anthroposophist, Rudolf Steiner, and has grown in popularity since 1922. The term biodynamic is taken from the Greek words ‘bios’ meaning life, and ‘dynamis’ meaning energy.  

Biodynamic farming is about working with the energies which create and maintain life.  It’s a combination of working with soil, plants and the cosmos. As with organic farming, it’s important to maintain sustainable soil fertility, through the application of humus, through crop rotation and through correct composting.  It's equally important to recognise the link between plant growth and the rhythms of the cosmos – it’s the combination of these two elements that really makes biodynamic farming work.

The Cullens use a series of soil preparations based on mineral, plant, and animal substances.  They also acknowledge the importance of astronomical rhythms and the position of the moon, the sun and the planets when sowing seeds, transplanting, applying liquid manures and spraying fruit crops.

To nurture the soil, they use ground spray 500, which is one of Rudolf Steiner's ideas. It’s made by filling female cow horns with fresh cow manure and burying them in winter.  By the following spring, the manure has been transformed into a crumbly mixture known as 500.  Correctly stored, it keeps for years; sprayed onto the soil three times a year (when the Moon opposes Saturn, or on a descending moon), it improves the soil and the quality of the plants which grow in it.  Ground spray 500 is combined at different times with fish emulsion and seaweed.

The Cullens also spray sulphur onto the leaves themselves, when necessary, as well as ‘501’, another Steiner preparation of ground silica buried underground in female cow horns during the summer months.

Good compost is a vital component of biodynamics.  Diana and Kevin spread five cubic meters per hectare across their vineyard each year, while weeds are controlled by physical means, and by an under-vine weeder.  This also controls the area’s greatest pest, the South African garden weevil, by disturbing its breeding patterns.

All in all, the Cullens believe in letting the wines make themselves, with as little human or chemical interference as possible.

The process of wine-making itself involves as little handling as possible – the fruit is treated gently, with hand- rather than mechanical-harvesting, minimal transportation and minimal filtration.  This helps to ensure that the wine in the bottle is a true expression of the fruit that it is made from.

In both the vineyard and the winery, the Cullens are working with nature, rather than trying to control it.   This gives them the land’s best and purest potential in each bottle.

For more information or a comprehensive list of wines, contact Corporate Express today.

Corporate Express provides wine only to the following States: NSW, ACT and VIC.

http://www.cullenwines.com.au/philosophy.htm