Nibiru
About
Located in the village of Thürneustift, in the northernmost corner of the Kamptal, Nibiru’s eight hectares of vineyard land are clustered here and around the village of Mollands. The land is certified organic, with Demeter biodynamic certification to be completed in 2022. True holistic farming is the long-term goal, however, with a special focus around their best vineyard site, the Goldnagel: a site of quartz, decomposed primary rock, and amphibolite soils, covered in super old vines with no neighboring chemically-farmed parcels to clash with their efforts. The ultimate hope is to have the Goldnagel and surrounding area be converted back to something like a wild habitat with vines throughout, drawing from practices of permaculture and regenerative agriculture, going beyond the biodynamic farming they currently employ. Some of the practices already in use are the creation and maintenance of their own compost, from grape pomace, horse manure, and straw; it’s spread in the vineyards every year or second year to build humus. Undervine management is done by hand gently and selectively, and the soil between rows is left to grow wild with indigenous plants.
The winemaking Julia and Josef practice is similarly hands-off: all fruit is hand-harvested; all wines are fully spontaneously fermented (including malolactic, which happens naturally in all of their wines). Sulfur applications are small, if at all, and assessed on a wine-by-wine basis each year; the méthode ancestrale and some vintages of the Portugieser never see any, where the rest of the wines will see a dose (no greater than 20ppm) applied in December or January each winter, when the wines are still. All of the Nibiru wines are always unfined and unfiltered.
The character of Julia and Josef’s work is implied in the name of their winery project, Nibiru: in a Sumerian myth, the name of a planet that crosses into our solar system only once every 3,000 years or so, traveling the opposite direction as the rest of our planets. This oppositional, rare mythical planet seemed to the two of them to symbolize the difference in their approach from the imposing, classical past of the Kamptal and their hopes for what may be possible in this region in the future. What strikes us most about these wines is such quality and clarity having been accomplished only a few years into production: the entry-level ‘Grundstein’ wines are far more serious than their prices reflect; in this way they remind us of their established neighbor Matthias Hager, while the mid-tier liter bottlings are composed of older vines, significantly higher-quality fruit than most producers will offer in a larger format; finally, the top-tier ‘Amphibolit’ wines are tributes to the intense metamorphic soils of the Goldnagel’s terraces and represent the rising star of this winery. These latter wines evoke to us what might be possible in some years’ time, wines along the lines of accomplished Kamptal natural winemakers Matthias Warnung and Martin and Anna Arndorfer.
We’re very excited for the future of Nibiru, these wines from the upper reaches of the Kamptal, an area for decades understood as too much of a cold satellite to make good wine. With the devoted farming and careful, unobtrusive winemaking Julia and Josef employ, we think these two are part of the exciting new chapter emerging in one of Austrian wine’s most traditional corridors.
Products
Ancestrale Rose
Organic, Biodynamic. Roughly 50/50 Portugieser and Zweigelt. Average vine age 30 years old, from a mix of parcels planted on gneiss, quartz, and loess soils. Whole cluster pressed, then spontaneously fermented in tank; when fermentation was in motion, they filled the bottles with the active wine to complete in bottle. Undisgorged. Zero SO2 added. RS around 3 g/l. Tastes like pure brambly fresh cola, with great acidity.
Gruner Veltliner Schoenberg
Biodynamic. 100% Grüner Veltliner. Whole bunch pressed, fermented in stainless steel. The wine goes through malo in the last third of primary fermentation, as with most white wines in the Nibiru cellar. The wine aged for eight months on fine lees until bottling. Unfined, unfiltered. Two additions of SO2 are performed, 20 mg/l first in winter and then a little top up at bottling.
Blauer Portugieser Grundstein
Biodynamic. 100% Blauer Portugieser. 50% 2018 juice, 50% 2019. 20 year-old vines from the single vineyard Bernthal. The wine was done in a semi-carbonic method, with 50% whole cluster and 50% destemmed whole berries, in stainless steel tank. It was pressed off as soon as the wine became dry to avoid bitter character from prolonged skin contact. The 2018 and 2019 lots aged separately in stainless steel before blending; 2018 was zero sulfur the entire time before the assemblage. 2019 saw two additions of SO2 over its élevage (15-20 parts each), then the final blend saw one addition (15 ppm). This wine is a terrific argument for the quality and interest of Portugieser as a central European variety: forest fruit, black pepper, fine tannin, freshness, herbs.
Riesling Grundstein
Biodynamic. 100% Riesling taken from Nibiru’s top site in their home village of Thürneustift, the Goldnagel. The terraces Josef selects for this cuvée are the ‘youngest’ vines in the vineyard, at an average age of 40 years old (whereas 80+ year-old vines go into the top-tier ‘Amphibolit’ cuvée). Whole-cluster pressed, then spontaneously fermented in stainless steel, racked only once and kept on fine lees eight months, until bottling. 20ppm SO2 added in January. Unfined, unfiltered. A powerful wine for the price.
Muller-Thurgau Alte Reben
Biodynamic. 100% Müller-Thurgau. 65 year-old vines in the high-quality single vineyard of Hiesberg; the MT is grown on schist, quartz, and feldspar in this intensely windy site. Hiesberg was farmed biodynamically even before Julia and Josef acquired it in 2015, so the fruit quality has been high since Nibiru’s inception. There’s almost no old-vines Müller-Thurgau to speak of anywhere in northern Austria, as not many in previous generations have taken the variety seriously, so it’s not often seen as a top offering from a winery like this. Fully de-stemmed, fermented on the skins for seven days, then pressed off into 225L old oak barrels. Kept on lees until bottling. 20ppm SO2 added in January. Unfined, unfiltered. A magisterial rendition of an underdog variety.
Oida! Red LITER
Biodynamic. 50% Zweigelt, 50% Merlot. Though this wine is labeled 'NV,' in this bottling it is all 2018 juice; even though the wine is inexpensive and cheerful in profile, it represents great value from the Nibiru cellar. The grapes were fermented separately in open-top fermenters for two-four weeks, were pressed into stainless steel for malo, then after malolactic, moved into big fass from Josef's grandfather’s dugout cellar. The wine has been aging since Nov '18, so nearly 40 months in barrel, bottled Feb 2022. Most lots of this wine received two SO2 additions over this time; free sulfur is brought to 20 parts at bottling. A joyful take on the table wine red blend, common in the Kamptal before Grüner and Riesling became all anyone cared about in the area.
Oida! White LITER
Biodynamic. Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Frühroter Veltliner, Gelber Muskateller, Chardonnay, Müller-Thurgau. A blend of almost all of Josef's vineyard sites in small pieces, meant to be a cheerful snapshot of all the different varieties and terrain across Nibiru's 12ha. The blend is mostly juice from 2020, with a small part of it from '21 and '19. About 80% of the fruit is fermented in stainless steel, with some small lots in neutral barriques. Almost all lots go through malo in the last third of primary fermentation; the wines then rest on full lees for around six months, and finally are racked to fine lees. At racking, the wines usually see a small sulfur addition (around 15 mg/l). Aging on the fine lees lasts for a bit over a year, with the small part of '21 juice on lees for four months. Some lots received additions of SO2 around 15-20ppm, mostly once, a few tanks twice. 'Oida!' is an Austrian slang term that means 'hey!': Josef wants this to be a playful representation of something like northern Austria's traditional Gemischter Satz.
Gelber Muskateller Ancestrale
Biodynamic. 100% Gelber Muskateller. Taken from two vineyard sites at 20-25 years of age. Fermentation begins in stainless steel, then when the wine is around 20g/l residual sugar, it's bottled to trap bubbles. Aged on lees for about five months in bottle, then disgorged in Feb/March of '22. 15g/L SO2 added at disgorgement. The most ethereal, aromatically compelling sparkling wine Josef has produced yet.
Gruner Veltliner Auxlese
Biodynamic. 100% Grüner Veltliner. Taken entirely from the Goldnagel, Nibiru's most important vineyard site: higher-elevation, old terraces, dominated by the dark, glittery, schist-like Amphibolit soils. Vines planted in 1973. Josef waited until mid-December to harvest this fruit entirely by hand, berry by berry; it was then fermented in neutral oak. Afterward, the wine was racked into a steel tank which Josef drove outside into the cold to slow fermentation to a crawl. It spent one year in stainless steel in cold temperatures until bottling. Total RS 46g/l.
'Amphibolit' Brut Nature
Biodynamic. 50% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Blanc. All of the fruit for this sparkler is taken from the Goldnagel - Nibiru's most important vineyard parcel, on one of highest terraces they have, dominated by the dark, glittery, schist-like Amphibolit soils. Vine age is between 30-40 yrs old. The base wine was unfiltered, with no sulfur added, on full lees for one year. Secondary fermentation began in October 2020, with organic cane sugar and organic-approved yeast addition. The wine was then aged on lees in bottle for fifteen months, disgorged in Jan/Feb 2022. 15 mg/l SO2 added at disgorging. Well-known Kamptal natural winemaker Matthias Hager was very helpful to Josef as the latter made this wine over the course of three years; they tasted together on several occasions and shared ideas for how to shape this special sparkler. Deep profile, golden notes and aromas, driven with acidity. An elegant expression of some of Nibiru's best terroir.
Gelber Muskateller Grundstein
Riesling 'Amphibolit'
Biodynamic. 100% Riesling. A hand selection in the vineyard of the very best fruit from Nibiru’s best site, the Goldnagel. Foot-stomped, whole-cluster, two days’ maceration, ferment in wood + three years’ aging before release. One of the top wines at the domaine.
'Der Paradeiser' Red Blend
