“It’s the Nitrogen, Stupid!”: On Agrochemistry, Biodynamics and Wine

By

Romana Echensperger

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Volume 04, Roots & Reach •

Above, a postcard from the German fertilizer industry of the 1920s. At the time, perspectives on soil were changing:  Until then, people had spoken of plant growth as being affected by forces; afterward, it was substances. Deficiencies could simply be addressed with the help of agrochemistry.  As recently as a decade ago, biodynamic viticulture could be shrugged off as “some dogma about phases of the moon and cow horns.” But now that we find a who’s who of the wine world on the member lists of relevant biodynamic organizations, it’s no longer so easy to cancel adherents to this form of farming. Those…

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A photograph of German journalist and educator Romana Echensperger Master of Wine smelling a cork, smiling, and gazing upward. She is wearing a light blouse, and light curtain is in the background.

Romana Echensperger has worked in Germany’s top restaurants, including as head sommelier alongside chef Joachim Wissler at Restaurant Vendôme, a Michelin three-star establishment outside Köln. In 2015 she became a Master of Wine. Today, she works independently and is much in demand as a wine journalist, educator, and consultant. She has also been intensively involved in the topic of biodynamic viticulture. She is the author of “Von der Freiheit den Richtigen Wein zu Machen: Biodynamisches Winzerhandwerk im Portrait.”

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