Biodynamics are horning in.

Michael Topolos had been growing grapes organically for years when he heard about biodynamic farming. "I was looking for an edge, for another dimension to our wines," Topolos said in a recent interview. "I talked to Greg Willis at Agri-Synthesis in Napa in 1995. He told me about it. It was a

"Greg brought me a box of apples from Golden Hooves orchard in Mendocino and he brought over a sprig of rosemary that he grows using methods that he developed. We grow rosemary all over the property here. When I compared his rosemary to mine, his was like five times more intense. When the apples came I took a bite out of one and was stunned by the perfume, the texture. Even more, that one apple sated my appetite for hours because it filled those spots that aren't normally filled, because so much of our food is grown on depleted soils. It was an amazing experience. I thought, 'My God, if I could transfer some of this magic into grapes,' and that started the whole process," he said.

The techniques of biodynamic farming are not easy to grasp, as Topolos pointed out. Biodynamics has been called part philosophy, part agriculture. Much of it is based in traditional agricultural techniques that have been followed for generations, such as composting and recycling waste products into the fields.

Michael Benziger began converting the estate vineyard in Glen Ellen to biodynamic techniques in 1997. "My first thought was, 'How am I going to explain to the guys working in the vineyards what I'm up to?' When they listened to me, they started laughing and smiling. When I asked what was going on, one guy said, 'That's how we have been farming in Mexico for generations. That was important to me, because biodynamics won't work without the people in the fields believing in it, doing it right. It's no good for me to sit in an office and talk about biodynamics." He added that he was more committed than ever to the process.

Anne Mendenhall of The Demeter Association, said of the philosophy or agriculture issue: "You can read a lot of stuff about biodynamics, some of which is true, some is outrageous. Biodynamics is a way of approaching nature so as to enhance the relationship, to assist and support the natural life processes. Nature responds by giving back a very high quality product. The biodynamic farmer tries to give to nature what is needed in this relationship. The thought behind this, the philosophy if you will, is that all life on earth is supported by unseen processes which are guided by spiritual entities much greater than we are, and that we can learn to work with these entities."