Nibiru, located in the extreme North of Kamptal, is a collection of about 25 hectares of biodynamic and terraced vineyards surrounding the village of Thürneustift. That that is far too many hectares for a single person doesn’t seem to have occurred to Josef Schenter, the owner/ vigneron / visionary of the project, who brings to the table an almost chronic inability to stop working as well as, frankly, a ton of talent and potential. That he’s changing the face of winemaking in his region should come as no surprise to those of you who are Sumerian Astronomy enthusiasts; it’s right there in the name. For the rest of us without the cuneiform chops, Nibiru is the moniker of a highly mythological dark planet travelling in the opposite direction as the rest of the galaxy that crosses into our solar system every 3000 years. The arrival of Nibiru portends the end of the world, but, luckily, not in a fire and brimstone type of way, but that afterwards, everything will just be totally different. With that in mind, it does sort of sound like Josef is calling his shot.

While Thürneustift is only 30 minutes by car (and they really want you to drive slow out here) from Arndorfer’s cellar, it’s nonetheless an entirely different world. Up until recently, the prevailing wisdom was that, really, it was too cold here entirely to make serious wine, just the anonymous 2 liter bottles locally called torpedoes and which, traditionally, were chaptalized all to hell and were often consumed mixed with soda. Josef, along with other growers in the vanguard of Northern Kamptal like Matthias Hager, are deep in the process of proving this wrong – in fact, the region’s climate is a blessing. Despite the utterly brutal summers lashing the region over the last few years, Nibiru’s wines still taste cool, fresh and light. While everyone else in the Kamptal is harvesting weeks early to avoid making 15% alcohol rieslings, Josef is getting phenolically ripe, beautiful fruit that still tastes refreshing.

Josef’s vineyards are for the most part, ancient terraces which he’s been tirelessly reviving in his “free time.” They are absolutely critical to his process, giving him a panoply of different wines to work with. As he tells us, “each terrace has its own terroir.” He favors old, high, and surrounded by forest vineyards, both for the characters they impart to the wine, but also to prevent any neighbors accidentally spraying chemicals on the vines – Joseph has been organic since 2015 and Demeter Certified biodynamic since 2022, which makes them seem almost impossibly green and humming with biodiversity. The vineyards, in general, seem quite bucolic and gentle, which is an illusion. Beneath the tiniest veneer of topsoil, you can see what intense rock the roots have sunk into – gnarled and banded amphibolite, which is incredibly hard and the breaking up of which Josef tells us, “builds character.” It’s clear that he is talking about the vines, but since 2018 he’s been carving and planting new terraces of his own so is rather more familiar with the effort of breaking up the mountains than most. There’s also a tiny smattering of limestone, which Josef saves for vines destined for sparkling wine, which any halfway competent observer could note that Josef is very talented at, even (especially?) if there’s not much of it.

Josef maintains two cellars – one at the winery where fermentation and bottling takes place, and one carved into the rock under his family’s original vineyard where the wines age directly underneath his oldest vines. In both, Josef is largely hands off and intuitive – he’s been cutting inputs gradually since 2015 and experimenting with what makes sense for his wines. Non-negotiable is spontaneous fermentation, which helps preserve all the character he labored for so long in the vineyards to develop. Additionally, the wines all naturally undergo malolactic, crucial for balancing the searing acid from cool weather, hard soils and tightly wound grapes. Sulfur use is limited – Josef has gradually dialed in at around 20ppm additional, added after the last racking so the wines can integrate and recover before bottling.



Our last visit, which included blending trials for the exquisite Oida! Liter bottlings, was among the most impressive visits we’ve had with a producer, full stop. While Nibiru has long been one of the best values in our portfolio, recent releases have demonstrated that Josef has truly come into his own as a winemaker. His single vineyard bottlings, especially, demonstrate the depths of his talent and vision and immediately catapulted to the top of our must have list. We know you’ll feel the same. Going forward, we expect to have Oida! and Schoenberg (formally known as Grundstein) year round in quantity, with sparkling Muskateller whenever it’s available (hard to overstate just how delicious it is) and a rotating cast of single vineyard offerings, allowing Josef’s wines to play in just about any sandbox you’ve got. What’s more – because of the strength of the 2025 vintage and our enthusiasm, we’ve been able to negotiate sharper pricing across the board, which means that there’s simply no excuse for not going feral for these wines. We’re beyond proud of Josef’s work and evolution, and, at this point, are fully on board with whatever world ending he’s got planned – whatever comes next is sure to be delicious.