Frank has organized up a really special event for the end of the month. A special Wine Berserkers viewing of an upcoming movie that spent multiple years being filmed, is getting ready to be shown at festivals, and eventually will go into distribtuion. We get to see it first. Hard to beat that. Especially when it is a film of such high quality in terms of video, content, and story. There was no original intent by the film maker to focus soley on Bertrand Gautherot, but after learning his story, things changed. As has been mentioned, this is a movie about much more than just wine. The family aspect and the beginning of passing the torch from one generation to the next is quite moving. Please come and be a part of this. I promise you will uplifted after watching the film and talking to Bertrand.
Thanks for sharing - very insightful and interesting film. Great introduction into biodynamic farming, I’m glad I found it since I was looking for good content on the topic for a while.
For ‘farmer fizz’ fans, this is the one not to miss, if only for the film we’ll be discussing on the Zoom session! I look forward to this one for that express purpose, as we’ll be addressing many of the extremely detailed methods of true biodynamic farming with someone so passionate about it, a former engineer, no less
Todd, thanks for the encouragement. I sat down and watched the full 50 minute film again to finish my prep for Saturday. What struck me this time was the music, which was really beautifully layered into the movie.
The movie takes you through the seasons of harvest. This includes how Bertrand adapted to both a frost event, as well as heatwave, and what that did to his harvest. You can see even in these moments, he is learning, adapting, advancing his thinking. And this is coming from someone who started farming differently back in 1998, so 20 tries at this stuff. You also get a sense of what real biodynamics look like, how it’s prepared, with some humor and humility, as well as the strong passion he feels for his vineyards and his relationship to them.
For those who want the link for Saturday, please PM me. Right now, we’re at about 40 people between here and Instagram. I’d like to see us get to 50 for the event, to show that kind of support.
As to when you can see the movie, the plan is for me to provide a special password on Friday around 10AM (PT) individually to each person who PM’d me, so you can view the movie prior to our live session with Bertrand on Saturday. The movie is viewable for just this 24 period, after which the password expires.
Good afternoon. Today, I received the link and password from Bertrand for the Vouette et Sorbee documentary. I tested it, works great. For those of you who have signed on to attend the event, you will get a PM from me on Friday just after 10AM with both of these items. You’re then welcome to play the movie and enjoy it. As you watch the film, think of a question you want to pose to Bertrand for our live session on Saturday.
By the way, the link and password will be good for 24 hours. So, if you plan to watch the film, please do that by 10AM Pacific time on Saturday.
Thanks everyone. I plan to open a 2014 d’Argile, which is the 100% Chardonnay he grows in the neighboring village of Ville-sur-Arce.
Aight, the movie password and link has been sent to all of you (forgive the long instructions in my PM as I just wanted to keep things clear). You’re free to watch the film and enjoy it up through the event tomorrow with Bertrand. If you didn’t get a PM from me and were expecting it, hit me again. See y’all tomorrow.
Beautiful film, Frank. Interesting story, with terrific camera work and imagery that is both beautiful and metaphorical. The music complements wonderfully. Bertrand is a fascinating guy, simple in the best sense, philosophical, with an understated sense of humor. Heloise for me was also a focus with her open but still skeptical mind and her future in front of her. Bravo to all involved with this!
Yes - wow. What a special opportunity. The filmmaking is imo as good as any wine-related work out there. It was clearly made with tremendous respect for the subject (and subjects). Lovely.
The part that really spoke to me was when they were comparing their approach/learning of biodynamics to philosophy. It helped me understand and give credence to the horn manure process.
Astrid, it was cool to see him do the bio 500 prep (cow horn with the manure) from start to finish, plus 502 (yarrow) and 507 (valerian). It took the numbers and made them real, that these are actual plant applications and we got to see them mixed and applied. That for me was cool.
Great stuff, Frank. Thank you. Wonderful cinematography and a good story. Even my wife, who loves wine but doesn’t normally pay attention to the really geeky details, was fascinated by it. I’ll be opening a Blanc d’Argile tomorrow…R11, disgorged 5/2/14.
I’m glad all are enjoying the documentary. This is dynamite stuff and will make for a great discussion tomorrow. Please try and give it a view prior to the visit tomorrow as it will help to make for a more cohesive event. This isn’t Frank, Todd, or me asking, but rather a kind request from Bertrand - and that is the truth.
The film combines great depth with lightness, educational value with entertainment, mysticism with pragmatism. The only fault: way too short, by the end I wanted to see more; I wanted to know the vinification processes, to follow the fruit’s journey into the bottle, to see its last stages before turning into wine. Nevertheless, a spectacular piece of cinema and one I hope sets a new standard for ‘wine films’.
For me one of the most fascinating moments is when Bertrand talks about the two main forces that affect the vines in biodynamics - sun and earth - and says that one should try to work with the vine’s natural tendency in all stages: in pruning, on sun day for older vines to inspire fruit growth, and earth day for younger vines to inspire root growth. And then he goes one step further: in the cellar a variety like Pinot Blanc, which he calls “horizontal,” or typified by the Earth, benefits from being vinified in under-earth-amphorae (its natural element should be recalled in the vinification). I guess it follows that Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for him are “vertical” varieties, typified by the Sun (and are vinified in barrels)?
My question for Bertrand would be: how does he distinguish the varieties into Earth/Sun types - by their look and taste? And what kind of natural element do oak barrels stand for?
Thanks to Bertrand, Frank, Todd, & Brad for putting this together and giving us the opportunity to view the film in preview. All in all it was an amazing experience and I loved the fact that for Bertrand biodynamics is not so much a modern approach that starts with Steiner, but rather a pre-modern mindset that feels natural and “just makes sense,” connecting it all the way back to the Egyptians and Mesopotamia.
I’ve been drinking “natural wines” regularly for more than 25 years and have literally hundreds if not thousands of bottles of them in my own cellar. The lesson I take from the documentary is that once you start believing magical bullshit, it is easy to view everything through a lens of magical bullshit and to become locked into confirmation bias. M. Gautherot lost a lot of credibility with me when early in the film he repeated the lie that natural wines are less likely to produce a hangovers than are conventional wines. Trust me, I’ve had plenty of hangovers after over consuming only natural wines. If anything, the opposite is true, as natural wines tend to be higher in biogenic amines than conventional wines.
I admire M. Gautherot’s passion and like his wines, just as with many other biodynamic producers, but listening to proselytizing of sympathetic magic bullshit from true believers makes it harder for me to enjoy their wines, just as listening to people touting the sympathetic magic bullshit of homeopathy makes it hard to respect their views on anything else. The well-produced documentary wasn’t enlightening, it just made me sad.
Mike, I don’t agree with your POV but it’s good to have differences. I actually believe in what he says about how one feels the day after drinking bio wines. It’s a view I had begun to take on prior to the film, something I had begun to notice in my own body as a result of how I felt the day following enjoying wines in this approach. I didn’t arrive at that conclusion because I wanted to believe this to be true or because I was told it might happen, this is what I have concluded from my own observations, after many different instances over the past year.
If we see you later this morning in the event, I do hope you enjoy it.
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