When the French ex-rugby player Gérard Gauby disinfected his vineyard with a chemical and found it strewn the next day with dead birds, he knew it was time for a change. When Dr. Robert Gross of Oregon’s Cooper Mountain Vineyards saw that his chemical sprays were causing vomiting in the local birdlife, he wondered: ‘what the hell are they doing to us human beings?’ Both stopped using chemicals and switched to biodynamic viticulture. In California, it was the flavours of the fruit and veg from their organic garden that turned the Fetzer family into organic and biodynamic winemakers. David Paxton, who owns 200 acres of vineyard in Australia’s McLaren Vale, was motivated by similar considerations. An old lunatic asylum in Victoria seemed an appropriate venue he thought at the time for a conference on biodynamic agriculture, but after hearing about people’s experiences and tasting the produce, a previously sceptical Paxton says ‘it became obvious that it was an opportunity to improve our fruit quality’.

Until recently, it’s the French who’ve spearheaded the drive towards biodynamic viticulture. And they include some of the great names of French wine: the Leroy, Leflaive and Lafon domaines in Burgundy, Zind-Humbrecht, Domaine Weinbach and Ostertag in Alsace, Jacques Selosse in Champagne, Chapoutier in the Rhône and Huet in Vouvray. Now, it’s the turn of the New World as increasing numbers of growers from Australia, Chile, New Zealand, California and South Africa, whether as part of an approach that uses fewer chemicals or goes the while biodynamic hog, have set in motion their own gradual conversion from conventional to sustainable farming and beyond.

According to David Paxton, ‘sustainable is often used as a glib word but it’s about reviving the health of the soil after the breakdown that inevitably occurs with the thoughtless use of chemicals. The transmission of nutrients stops with herbicides and the interconnection with the fungi and bacteria is broken. Since converting to biodynamic viticulture in 2004, I’ve found that the quality and health of the grapes has improved dramatically and we’re getting better prices for them’. He says that while there was much scepticism at the time, the scoffing has now stopped and there’s now considerable interest in his vineyard model from other Australian growers. Paxton’s conversion was neither a marketing opportunity nor about staking out the moral high ground but was ‘the difference bringing a child up on Big Mac or healthy homegrown food’.

The New World producers mentioned are not voodoo practitioners, yet biodynamic farming still raises a sceptical eyebrow. As in the case of organic viticulture, the aim is to produce healthy grapes naturally. But since biodynamic farming invokes the rhythms of the planet and embraces practices that at first sight seem plain wacky, it requires more of a leap of faith than simple organics. The idea derives from the thinking of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861 – 1925) who taught that working the soil requires a reconnection with nature to allow it to produce nutritious food. Working on the complex interaction of mineral, plant and animal life, homeopathic applications of plants and minerals seem natural enough. It’s preparations such as cow horn dung and yarrow flower in a deer’s bladder that give the sceptics a field day, as it were.

In fact the scepticism is healthy because it questions the practices and the effects without swallowing them hook line and sinker – even the practitioners often admit they don’t always know how it works. One of the problems for consumers is sorting the sustainable wheat from the pseudo-organic chaff seized upon by the many bandwagon jumpers. As David Paxton himself says ‘We see scepticism among consumers, so letting the consumer know we’re biodynamic is something we’re approaching carefully as we don’t want them to think we’re a bunch of wankers cashing in on the green movement.’ There’s the rub. A legacy of poor organic wine and the ‘keen-to-be-seen-to-be-green’ lobby using green ends for marketing purposes are factors that have fed consumer scepticism, holding organic and biodynamic wines back from more rapid absorption into the mainstream.

Master of Wine and ex-Waitrose wine buyer Susan McCraith, who recently went solo with ethicalwine.com, is a strong supporter of biodynamic wines for their ‘purity and vibrancy’. She feels public acceptance of organic and biodynamic wines is slow ‘because supermarkets can only talk about organic if wine if it’s certified, but for me there’s a wider story to tell, including that of the many winemakers who are all but organic but not doing it for the certification. What I’m trying to do is support people making a genuine environmental effort to reduce sprays, use organic fertilizers and experiment with biodynamics’. Lance Pigott, of specialist organic wine merchants Vintage Roots, feels that unlike with organic food, organic wines are poorly represented in the high street because ‘most organic growers are small and the majority of producers are looking at the quality and not the volume market’.

He agrees with Susan McCraith that there’s better quality and more choice, especially with the arrival on the scene of bigger players like California’s Fetzer and Chile’s Emiliana. He also feels that the supermarket attitude that ‘there’s no future in it’ is changing. Despite recent figures that show that only 26 per cent of regular wine drinkers bought organic wines in the past year, Sainsbury’s, which according to Nielsen stats has over a quarter of the market, claims to have doubled its organic wine sales recently. According to organic wine buyer Michelle Smith, when they had a separate organic section, people walked past as they didn’t like to be pigeonholed. ‘People don’t write “organic cheese” or “organic apples” on their shopping list’, says Smith ‘and it’s the same with wine, but if we offer an alternative, customers are happy to trade up for reasons of health, taste and the wider environmental benefits’. It’s a step in the right direction, but specialists like Vintage Roots, Whole Foods, Planet Organic and The Natural Kitchen are still your best option for the widest organic wine ranges.

Sustainable, Organic and Biodynamic Wines to Try

2007 Fairtrade Tilimuqui Single Vineyard Torrontés, £5.99, Waitrose.

With its aromatic floral grapiness resembling of cross between the scented muscat and gewürztraminer grapes, torrontés is one of Argentina’s most distinctive white varieties. The floral-scented lychee-like character and juicy freshness of this version made from organic grapes in Argentina’s northern Famatina Valley makes it a joy to drink.

2007 KT & The Falcon Single Vineyard Watervale Riesling, Clare Valley, £19, Berry Bros.& Rudd (0870 900 4300; bbr.com)

The KT here is the talented ex-Leasingham winemaker Kerri Thompson using grapes farmed organically from the Peglidis vineyard in the township of Watervale to create this stylish dry Australian white. The hallmarks of fine Clare Valley rielsing are there, intense, zesty aromatics and richly concentrated lemon and lime fruitiness, topped and tailed with an almost European-style restraint and mineral dry finish.

2007 ‘Vigneti Belisario’ Verdicchio di Matelica, Cantine Belisario, around £12.49 per bottle, Bennetts Fine Wines (01386 840392), Philglas & Swiggot (020 7924 4494), Liberty Wines (020 7720 5350).

One of Italy’s most characterful white grape varieties, the verdicchio grape of Le Marche on the Adriatic offers that mouthteringly crisp and fresh character that only a plate of seafood will satisfy. So it is with this rich yet refreshing full-bodied Italian dry white made from organic grapes, whose tangy bone dry acidity makes a perfect, summer’s day white.

2007 Château Sainte Marguerite Cru Classé, Côtes de Provence, £9.99, Majestic Wine Warehouses

The acidity in the vermentino grape makes it a speciality of the Mediterranean especially Sardinia and southern France, where it’s also known as rolle. There’s a spellbinding intensity in the aromas of this terrific organic white from the Fayard family’s 50 hectares of vineyards at La Landes Les Maures on the French Riviera whose peachy fruit and refreshing acidity are as intense as Mediterranean luminosity.

2006 L’Insolite, Saumur, Domaine des Roches Neuves, around £14.15, Les Caves De Pyrène, Guildford (01483 554750), Wimbledon Wine Cellar (0208 540 9979).

Best known for making some of the most accomplished cabernet francs in the clay-limestone, sandstone and flint soils of Saumur Champigny, Thierry Germain also makes this stunning dry white from pure, organic chenin blanc grapes, producing a wine of pristine fresh fruitiness that’s rich and at the same time grapefruity zesty and minerally. A class act.

2006 Bonterra Viognier, £9.99 - £10.50, Booths, ethical wines.com, Majestic Wine (buy 2 get £4 off).

From organic viognier grapes grown in California’s Mendocino and Lake counties with the addition of 15 per cent marsanne and roussane for added zip, this powerful Rhône-style dry white displays floral honeysuckle undertones and opulent peachy fruit flavours tempered by refreshing acidity with a hint of vanilla from a light touch of oak.

2007 Domaine du Grand Milord Rosé, Vin de Pays du Gard, £5.99, Marks & Spencer

An attractively bright salmon pink in colour, this southern French Rosé made by the Amphoux family from a blend of organic caladoc grapes (a crossing of grenache and malbec in case you were in doubt) judiciously topped up with syrah offers a mouthful of juicy berry fruitiness and an elegant dry finish that makes it the choice for salad niçoise.

2006 Organic Botteghino Chianti, £7.99, Marks & Spencer

From the organic vineyard of the Fattoria in Romignano close to Siena in Tuscany, this is a typically delicate style of chianti made by Riccardo Rossi in which the organic sangiovese grape shows off its bright sour cherryish fruitiness and refreshing acidity and without the distorting effect of excessive oak or alcohol. Nothing fancy, just a highly approachable, gluggy young Italian rosso.

2005 Douro Quinta do Côa Tinto, around £8.99, Vintage Roots (0800 980 4992, vintageroots.co.uk), Whole Foods Market, Kensington

Based on a blend of the port grapes Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and other Douro red varieties, this is plump and juicy, well-crafted organic Portuguese red whose spicy blackberry and mulberry richness is given extra life and vibrancy by an intense damsony bite on the aftertaste.

2006 Cederberg Sustainable Shiraz, £7.50 Waitrose.

Made by David Nieuwoudt from pure shiraz vines in the Cederberg, South Africa’s highest vineyards, this is the modern face of Cape shiraz: a pure and powerful, screwcap-sealed shiraz whose spicy, black cherry fruit is neatly rounded out with a touch of oak. The Cape has lagged behind a bit in the sustainable stakes but this stylish red shows the way.

2005 Coyam, Emiliana, around £12.50, Vintage Roots, Kensington Wholefoods Market

Made by top Chilean winemaker Alvaro Espinoza from a blend of syrah and Bordeaux varieties on Emiliana’s organic estate at Los Robles in Colchagua, this is a youthful, vibrant, richly fruited red whose berryish aromas and sweetly ripe concentrated blackberry fruit are offset by succulent, bittersweet-chocolatey tannins, leavened by subtle oak spice refreshed by nippy acidity.

2005 Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot, Cullen, around £35.49, Noel Young Wines, Cambridge (01223 844744), The Secret Cellar, Tunbridge Wells (01892 537981), Stainton Wines, Kendal (01539 731886), Whole Foods Market, Kensington, Wimbledon Wine Cellar, Bennetts Fine Wines, Fortnum & Mason.

A firm believer in the link between sustainability and quality, Vanya Cullen, one of Australia’s leading winemakers, has converted all her family’s vineyards in Western Australia’s Margaret River to biodynamic prodiction with starting results: like this intense Bordeaux-style blend whose core of rich cassis fruit and polished veneer of oak offers serious, long-term satisfaction in the Pauillac mould. It’s in screwcap as a guarantee of long-term ageing and freedom from cork taint.

Fleury Père et Fils Brut Champagne, £21.99, Vintage Roots.

Ploughing a lonely biodynamic furrow in Champagne’s cool and often wet conditions is no picnic but this quality blend of the 2004 and 2005 vintages made in the Aube region by Jean-Pierre Fleury from pure pinot noir doesn’t rely on its biodynamic certification to sell itself but rather the quality of what’s in the bottle: a consistently fine, elegantly tangy berry and baked apples and cream fizz.