A COFFEE WITH

Adriano Zago

agronomist, oenologist coach and founder of Cambium 

I became an agronomist, oenologist, and ICF coach almost naturally, as my passion for the world of plants started very early, already during my childhood. In Conegliano, with my grandfather, I started gardening at the age of five. As I grew older, my passion intensified, especially because my father was a great wine enthusiast.
In the world of plants, I found a profound love that eventually led me to choose a path of study that today allows me to guide farms toward more sustainable agriculture—specifically, biodynamic agriculture—through consulting, training, and business development.
Over time, the plant I focused on the most became the vine, although I always remained engaged with broader agricultural contexts. I continued to embrace the agronomic dimension, not just viticulture. When I discovered biodynamic agriculture, I found a method that, in my view, harmonized and unified all these elements.
Making wine is not just a production process. Like any transformation of a living material, it cannot be separated from the relationships within a farm—between the production processes and among people. Everything must be part of a balance, of harmony. I wanted a method that would allow the soil, the plant, and the entire farm to thrive: biodynamic agriculture gave me that answer. Because only by putting a set of well-balanced practices into action is true sustainability possible. 

After my university studies, carried out between Italy and France, I traveled around the world before deciding to settle in Tuscany, where I’ve now lived for twenty-two years. I live at the top of a hill just outside Florence, where I run my small farm, Podere Mastrilli. There, I do on a small scale what the large companies I work with do: I grow beauty. I have a vegetable garden, a garden, olive trees, a multi-varietal biodynamic vineyard cultivated with agroforestry principles, and chickens.
I love cultivating beauty in many forms—beauty, for me, is a complete dimension.
That’s also why I founded Cambium: to provide 360° support to farms—especially biodynamic ones—for their development and growth. Our team works to strengthen businesses and help them reach their full potential. While we mainly operate in the wine sector, we also work extensively across agriculture more broadly. 

I first connected with Accademia a couple of years ago during a workshop where I led a masterclass on biodynamic wines. I had selected three or four producers I collaborate with and organized a tasting, where we discussed how the wines are made.
That same day, in the same room, a conference by the Accademia team was taking place. I stayed to listen—and discovered that we were doing very similar things. When I heard about the shade trees used in coffee plantations, I couldn’t help but think of the ones I planted to shade the vineyard. The use of single-varietal coffees reminded me of viticulture and the great attention paid to genetics.
I felt the urge to explore further, and when we started talking, we found even more points of contact between our daily work and the research carried out by Accademia and La Marzocco. We are united by the culture of soil fertility, transformation, and fermentation. 

So, when last November I had to choose a venue for the 2024 Cambium Day—a day of cultural exchange among the companies I work with—I decided to organize it at Accademia. Beyond the beauty of the place, there was this alignment of values. I wanted a venue with an inspiring business story, like that of La Marzocco.
From this event, new things blossomed and a small network of connections was born, which made me very happy.
Because even though Cambium and La Marzocco work in different fields, what unites them is how they do it, more than what they do.
For example, we both pay great attention to team dynamics. It’s essential to find balance and harmony and to embrace a broader vision that sees every element as an active part of the system.

Today, producing for the sake of quantity no longer makes sense—the real goal should be to create quality and health, and that’s what companies want to learn.
There is always room for improvement: in how I manage the soil, the vineyard—but also how I manage the business. Our work helps identify the key aspects to improve and how to activate change together. Often, it’s a deep transformation—a shift in mindset.
One of the most frequent issues I see in companies is the excessive focus on the final product for its own sake. We need to shift this perspective and ask ourselves how we can do things differently, and above all, why we do them. This kind of thinking applies to countless specific areas.
Often, there is a desire to produce amazing grapes, in the largest quantity possible. Companies aim to be extremely high-performing according to these standards, without exploring the many different ways to do so—or questioning their reasons for doing it. That’s where our work comes in. 

On one hand, this translates into practical solutions: alternative vinification systems, agricultural tools that operate differently. But on the other hand, we work deeply on shifting how people think. It all starts with learning how to observe how soil functions.
By changing your approach, the results become specific and impactful—because they’re grounded in a new mindset. Simply put, if you have a sticker that doesn’t stick well, you don’t fix the sticker, you fix the glue. 

Biodynamic agriculture was born in 1924 and was the first system to distance itself from conventional agriculture. It’s a set of sound agricultural practices—a method that, by integrating ecological and agronomic principles, creates a self-sustaining system in a sustainable way. Its goal is to achieve and maintain a balance between soil, plants, animals, and the cosmos, with practices in harmony with nature. The human element is essential—through active interaction to build a reality aligned with the environment. 

All alternative movements to conventional agriculture came much later, about fifty years after, following the environmental revolution of 1968. In the 1970s, practices like Permaculture and Fukuoka’s “One Straw Revolution” began to emerge.
The Demeter biodynamic certification is the world’s oldest environmental process certification. Created in the 1920s in Germany, it was established almost alongside biodynamic agriculture itself. Farmers adopting these practices immediately felt the need to protect and promote their work—by giving visibility to their products and forming a network. A network allowed for knowledge sharing and improvement, ultimately strengthening the farms.
Demeter is now active in about 50 countries worldwide and is the most recognized and impactful certification in the field. 

Today, there’s still a lot of work to do in spreading biodynamics. Two years ago, I wrote the first manual on biodynamic viticulture in Italy, because nothing accessible yet existed.
Through Cambium, I’ve worked over the years with more than 250 companies in consulting and have trained over 2,000 professionals in the wine and agricultural sectors. This extraordinary 20-year journey has allowed me to experience the immense diversity and beauty of agricultural enterprises around the world. 

A key part of my work is helping farms transition from conventional to biodynamic agriculture. It’s a process that takes a few years, but the timing depends on how open people are to questioning themselves and how much they are willing to invest in the process.
Every living system wants to thrive—and soil is a living system. When you start working to strengthen it, the soil has an incredible capacity for recovery and response. By removing sources of interference—such as toxins and poor practices—and introducing biodynamic preparations, proper techniques, and natural rhythms, the soil regenerates and heals.