Nibiru Carbonic Blauer Portugieser 2023

The Land

Blauer Portugieser has nothing to do with Portugal. The old story has an Austrian nobleman carrying cuttings home from Porto in 1772, but ampelographers trace the grape to Lower Styria, in present-day Slovenia, and DNA work shows it is a cross of Grüner Silvaner and Blaue Zimmettraube. It settled into Lower Austria in the 19th century and never left. Nibiru grows it in Thürneustift, in the municipality of Schönberg am Kamp, the northernmost corner of the Kamptal. This is upstream of Langenlois, where the Kamp valley narrows and runs up toward the Waldviertel plateau, a continental pocket of terraced slopes and forest. The estate's soils are geologically busy: a top layer of loess over ancient primary rock, amphibolite, gneiss and other metamorphic stone. Loess gives Portugieser its juicy fruit; the rock underneath keeps it from turning soft.

The Wine

One hundred percent Blauer Portugieser from the estate's Kamptal vineyards, made by carbonic maceration: whole, uncrushed bunches start fermenting inside the berry in a vessel filled with carbon dioxide. The method pulls color and fruit with very little tannin, which suits a grape that tends toward low acid and soft structure anyway. It is bottled as a Special Release under the simple Wein designation rather than Kamptal DAC, at 10.5 percent alcohol. Nibiru's own shorthand for it is cool-spiced, dark berries and uplifting. In the glass that means blackberry and blue fruit, a cool peppery edge, a supple, juicy middle and a clean finish. Serve it with a light chill. The 2023 season in Lower Austria started after a very dry winter, brought local hail and early mildew pressure, then warmed up, and an early, fast harvest brought in ripe, healthy fruit.

The People

Josef Schenter grew up in his family's winery, Weingut Schenter, in Thürneustift, and decided on wine at 15, training in winemaking, viticulture and microbiology before working harvests abroad, including in South Africa. He and Julia Nather started Nibiru in 2015; among the very first experiments was a Blauer Portugieser. The project is named for a wandering planet from Sumerian myth. In 2021 Josef's father retired and the family estate went over entirely to Nibiru. Julia, who brought a background in agriculture and orcharding from southern Germany, co-founded the project with Josef, who runs Nibiru today. The vineyards are certified organic and carry Demeter biodynamic certification, completed in 2022. Fruit is picked by hand, fermentations are spontaneous, and the wines go into bottle unfined and unfiltered.

Food Pairing

Treat this like a chilled Beaujolais. A board of hard salami, smoked ham, pickled vegetables and a nutty Alpine cheese is the easy call; low tannin and bright fruit let the salt and fat take the lead. Grilled bratwurst with sauerkraut and grainy mustard works for the same reason, the fruit sweetening the sour and the spice matching the mustard. Try it with a mushroom and thyme flatbread with caramelized onions, where the earthy notes meet the wine's pepper. Roast chicken thighs with paprika and lemon round it out. At 10.5 percent, this is the natural wine from Kamptal to open on a warm evening, pour a second glass of, and still have a clear head for the next morning.