Nicolas Joly

"Nicolas Joly is something of a superstar in the world of natural wine. He started out as an investment banker, but in 1977 he left finance to return to his family’s fabled Coulée de Serrant, a vineyard that comprises its own appellation and was planted by Cistercian monks around 1130. Joly decided that he wanted to make wines that expressed the terrior of Coulée de Serrant. He became skeptical of modern agriculture methods and the effects it had on nature after he took some early advice to use pesticides and fertilizers. Within two years of using them, he witnessed firsthand subtle but noticeable alterations in the vineyards. The color of the soil was changing, and insects like ladybirds were no longer there; he compared the vineyard to a perpetual winter, devoid of life even in the summer.

"In the late ‘70s Joly by chance came across a book by Rudolf Steiner on homeopathic/astrological principles of agriculture, and the rest is winemaking history. Joly started working in biodynamics in 1980, and all the vines at the estate have been farmed under biodynamic principles since 1984. Today Joly is called the guru of modern biodynamism and has written many books on the subject."

His book Wine from Sky to Earth describes the biodynamic preparation of silica.