Wine from the Opok Slopes of Southern Styria
Weingut Maria & Sepp Muster is one of Austria's most revered natural wine estates — a 10-hectare biodynamic property in the village of Leutschach, southern Styria, run with unwavering conviction by Maria and Sepp Muster. [^41^] [^42^] The estate dates back to 1727, but the current chapter began in 2000 when Sepp and Maria took over from Sepp's father and immediately embarked on a biodynamic path, achieving Demeter certification by 2003. [^36^] [^41^] Their vineyards, planted on the distinctive Opok soil — a rocky clay-limestone silt that resembles schist — are farmed without herbicides, pesticides, or synthetic inputs, and have been chemical-free for generations. [^37^] [^41^] In the cellar, the philosophy is radical minimalism: spontaneous fermentation only, no fining, no filtration, no added sulfur, and ageing for 18 to 24 months in large neutral wooden casks. [^41^] The result is a range of wines — white, red, rosé, and orange — that are precise, elegant, and alive, each one a meditation on soil, climate, and the art of leaving things alone. [^40^] [^50^]
From a Ruined Estate to a Biodynamic Sanctuary
The Muster estate is old — founded in 1727, with a history stretching back nearly three centuries. [^41^] But when Sepp's father bought the property in 1978, it had fallen completely into disarray. The vines were lying flat on the ground, the buildings were dilapidated, and the entire region of Styria — historically a fairly poor, rural area far from large cities — had suffered greatly after the Second World War. [^36^]
Sepp's father rebuilt everything from scratch. He replanted the vineyards — the oldest vines now date to around 40 years ago — and established the farm according to how it had looked historically. [^36^] Sepp worked alongside his father until 1994, but the priority then was survival: putting food on the table, not making wine on a high-quality level. [^36^] It was only when Sepp and Maria took over in 2000 that the estate's true potential began to unfold.
The turning point came from travel. In 1998, Maria and Sepp travelled the world, and in India they met Peter Proctor, a biodynamic farmer and specialist from New Zealand. [^36^] The encounter was mind-blowing — to see a farmer truly connecting with nature, working together with it rather than against it. They returned to Styria with a clear intention: if they had the possibility, they would work the biodynamic way. In 2000, they began the conversion. By 2003, they were Demeter certified. [^36^] [^38^]
The Musters also became central figures in a community of like-minded Styrian winemakers. Together with Ewald Tscheppe (Weingut Werlitsch), Andreas Tscheppe, Alice and Roland Tauss, and Christine and Franz Strohmeier, they created Schmecke das Leben — a study-and-support group to share information, learnings, and philosophies. [^41^] This circle of natural wine pioneers has defined the identity of southern Styria as one of the world's most exciting natural wine regions.
"When my father bought the vineyard, the vines were lying flat on the ground. We had to rebuild everything... We tried to keep everything how it was before, and people are really happy when they come and can see these old farmhouse traditions."
— Sepp Muster
Biodynamic, No Compost & the Opok Soil
The Musters' farming is biodynamic — but it is their own biodynamics, not a textbook version. They do not use compost, which is uncommon in biodynamic circles and initially caused tension with Demeter. [^36^] Sepp explains: "There's no real name for what we do… It's just farming. It's watching nature, how it works, trying to see what's going on with all of these complex processes. When you keep going, the complexity becomes simple." [^36^]
Their philosophy is one of hands-off observation. Sepp believes that if you leave the vineyard in a hands-off way for 5–10 years, it finds balance by itself. The weaker vines become stronger; the stronger vines become weaker. They meet each other. This balance brings vitality to the grapes, and then to the wine. [^36^] It is a philosophy of trust — trust that nature knows better than the farmer, and that intervention, even well-intentioned, often brings a system further out of balance than in balance.
The vineyards are planted on Opok — a soil type unique to this part of Styria. It is a mixture of clay, silt, and limestone, hard and rocky, appearing almost like schist. [^36^] [^41^] This soil is the backbone of the Muster wines: it gives them a rich texture, distinct minerality, and a tension that defines the estate's style. The slopes are steep — some neighbouring vineyards reach over 700 metres — and all work is done by hand. [^45^]
The Musters have also developed their own unique trellising system, inspired by how vines grow in nature. "We copy nature a bit," Sepp explains. "In nature, vines grow up trees — when they grow upwards, they're in the vegetative phase. Then, when they're heavier, they move down by themselves, due to gravity. Then they're in the 'generative' phase. The focus changes to growing grapes. By working like this, I think we get better physiological ripeness: more balance." [^36^] This approach means they use stems for their orange wines, and even in cool, wet years, they never have green tannins.
Full biodynamic certification since 2003. The vineyards had never seen herbicides or pesticides before, so conversion was smooth. [^37^] [^38^]
Sepp does not use compost — an unconventional choice even in biodynamics. He believes leaving the vineyard alone allows it to find its own balance. [^36^]
Rocky clay-limestone silt, hard as schist. The soil that defines the Muster style: rich texture, distinct minerality, and tension. [^36^] [^41^]
A unique system inspired by vines growing up trees. Gravity guides the shift from vegetative to generative phase, achieving better physiological ripeness. [^36^]
More and More of Less & Less
The Muster cellar philosophy is radical in its simplicity: "More and more of less and less." [^37^] [^50^] Sepp spent ten years unlearning what he had been taught about winemaking. "It took me ten years to lose what I had learnt previously about winemaking, as it's always there in the corner of your brain. It disturbs you all the time. I'm doing the opposite to what I learnt. It works — it tastes different, but it works, and people like it." [^36^]
The first step was embracing natural fermentation — ditching lab-cultured yeasts. Then they moved from precise filtering to rough filtering, and then to no filtering at all. They stopped racking before fermentation, realising that what they racked off was actually "the sense of the vineyard — of the soil." [^36^] Next, they began ageing wines for much longer — between 20 to 24 months — a luxury made possible by growing market demand for their wines. [^36^]
For ageing, they use large neutral wooden casks — 1200-litre and 2400-litre oval casks — and some clay amphoras. [^41^] The wooden pores allow a small amount of oxidation, which keeps the wine alive without destroying its balance. "If you fine or filter or move the wine too much, you bring the wine out of balance and then you lose life," Sepp explains. [^36^] The wines are bottled without fining, without filtration, and with no added sulfur. [^41^]
Because their wines taste drastically different from conventional Styrian wines, they were initially deemed atypical by the DAC system and not allowed to use vineyard names on the label. [^36^] They began labelling their Sauvignon Blanc as "Sauvignon vom Opok" instead — a name that connected the wine to its soil rather than its grape variety. "It was difficult to sell our wines with the name of the variety on the label, because they didn't taste like the other wines from the region," Sepp says. "That's actually an honour for me because I see that there's more to the variety. We try to show our customers the soil, the climate, the place." [^36^]
"Erde" — Earth in a Bottle
Erde means "earth" in German, and it is the Musters' most profound expression of skin-contact winemaking. [^41^]
Sauvignon Blanc and Morillon (Chardonnay) are hand-harvested, half destemmed, and macerated on the skins for up to 12 months before being transferred to 1200-litre oval wooden tanks for a further 20 months of elevage. [^41^] Bottled without fining, filtration, or sulfur, Erde is a wine of extraordinary depth: very herbal, dense, earthy, with ripe fruit aromas and a textural weight that demands patience and contemplation.
"Take this wine out on a date and be ready to only come home after 3 days or so. Or maybe a week," the Musters suggest. [^41^] It is a wine that evolves continuously in the bottle, gaining complexity and savoury nuance with each year. The 2005 vintage — the first Erde — was opened recently and showed beautifully, a testament to the ageing potential of wines made with this level of care and restraint. ~€45–€65 / ~$50–$72.
The Muster Range
Weingut Maria & Sepp Muster produces a focused range of white, red, rosé, and orange wines from their 10 hectares of biodynamic vineyards in Leutschach. All wines are hand-harvested, spontaneously fermented in large neutral wooden casks or clay amphoras, aged for 18–24 months, and bottled without fining, filtration, or added sulfur. [^41^] The portfolio is built around the Opok soil, with premium lines from the Graf and Sgaminegg vineyards. Prices are approximate and in EUR/USD.