Biodynamic farmers view their farm as an independent, unique individual unit, with external inputs kept to a minimum. This has parallels with the old French idea belief that the unique whole environment (terroir) of a vineyard, including the yeasts that grow on the grapes and the influence of the people who tend the vines, all contribute to the quality and sense-of-place experienced when a wine from that vineyard is drunk. An increasing number of Australian winemakers are adopting this ‘terroirist’ approach, using wild or indigenous yeast fermentations, bottling wines from single patches of vines rather than blending wines from vineyards or regions, in an effort to express their unique site. And when influential French vigneron Nicolas Joly describes biodynamics as a way of ‘helping vines catch the climate and soil in the wine’, it strikes a chord with this new wave of old-fashioned Australian winemakers.