Description

For the Demeter-certified Biodynamic: Luna, three Irish growers – Trevor Harris, Alan Mooney and John McDonnell – stepped up to the challenge of applying unusual agricultural practices to growing barley.

They run their farms according to esoteric principles derived from a 1924 series of lectures by the Austrian polymath Rudolf Steiner. Steiner created a codified agricultural system for post-WW1 farmers, who were worried about the industrialisation of agriculture, the degradation of the land and the loss of millennia of farming know-how – bios meaning life, and dynamos energy. Having been adopted by many of the world’s greatest wine producers seeking the ultimate of pure and intense flavours, biodynamics today stands at the cutting edge of regenerative agriculture.

Some say it is an advanced form of “über-organic” farming, in which each farm is its own self-sustaining organism where elements including soil, crops, animals, people and the ‘spirit of place’ are all interconnected. For us, it is the ultimate expression of our terroir discoveries.

The approach includes an array of seemingly controversial practices such as burying manure-packed cow horns to ‘ferment’ underground; the creation of simple plant treatments and natural compost fertilisers to stimulate microbial activity; all following the natural rhythms of the lunar calendar. The purpose is to produce vibrant, chemical-free living soil. As barley makes malt whisky the most complex spirit in the world – the very source of its flavour – biodynamics will contribute to an even purer and more intense expression.

Indeed, to create the ultimate natural whisky.