Domaine Breton

Bourgueil, Loire Valley, France

 "We practice slow, soft and honest élevage to get the authenticity and the peculiarity of each cuvée." - The Bretons

Catherine and Pierre Breton own 17 hectare vineyards in Restigné, a village in Bourgueil. They are working with typical appellations: Chinon, Bourgueil and Vouvray, creating wines for all wine lovers, from direct consumption to long aging wines. Firstly, certified as an organic farm in 1991, they started to produce biodynamically in 1994. Internationally famous for their work on difficult soils (gravel, limestone, clay, schist and yellow tuffeau), they tend to produce round natural wines, delightful and crisp. Some of their work (mainly done by Catherine) can be found under the label "La Dillettante"! 


www.domainebreton.net

Organic, Biodynamic and Natural wine. What’s the difference?

To understand this concept and its various ramifications, it is necessary to keep something clear in mind: before the 20th century and the spreading of affordable synthetic fertilisers, all farming was organic. When the shift to the use of synthetics and pesticides happened, it became necessary to diversify traditional organic farming from the new modern farming. 


ORGANIC WINE

Simply put, organic farming forbids the use of synthetic fertilisers, synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or genetically modified organisms. The basic requirements are generally specific and engage the farmers not to use any chemical fertilisers and other synthetic products in the vineyard. It does not prevent the vintner from using the conventional winemaking process after harvesting. 


BIODYNAMIC WINE

Let’s take organic farming one step further: Biodynamic. The creator of this agricultural system is the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, who developed the principles of biodynamics in a series of lectures given in 1924 in Germany. Here lies the foundation of true organic wines, with a strict limit in the use of additives, stringent requirements and at the end obtaining a biodynamic certification.


NATURAL WINE

The previous definitions are usually, and rightfully, associated with it, because most natural wine is also organic and/or biodynamic. But not vice versa!

Natural wine is wine in its purest form, simply described as nothing added, nothing taken away, just grapes fermented. No manipulation whatsoever, minimal intervention both in the vineyards and in the winery. Healthy grapes, natural yeast and natural fermentation, with no filtration nor fining. Sounds easy, right? However, making natural wine is unforgiving and it requires a bigger amount of work than conventional wine. To this day, natural wine has no certification yet.