In the fictional Gut Oggau family, Josephine is Timotheus's second wife and Winifred's stepmother, described as an easy-going and somewhat voluptuous lady who first found the love of her life at a slightly older age. She sits among the parents' generation, alongside Joschuari, Emmeram and Timotheus, from sites with more direct sun exposure that produce fuller-bodied wines than the lighter children's tier.

What sets Josephine apart from every other wine in the range is her grape. Rösler is a fungus and frost-resistant hybrid variety developed in the 1960s, found almost exclusively in Burgenland. It produces fruity and tannic wines with a powerful colour, which can sometimes be quite concentrated in fruit, and often does not taste like many other hybrid wines. Eduard and Stephanie have championed it quietly and seriously, and Josephine is proof of what it can do in the right hands. It is also worth noting that when Gut Oggau retired their cult Brutal label, the Rösler grapes previously used for it were redirected to increase Josephine's production, giving this wine a small but meaningful piece of that legacy. 

Josephine holds a special place in the Gut Oggau dynasty as the only female red in the family. Despite its deep, dark colour, you find a quite nice balance beneath, not extreme in tannins and body. The grapes are hand-harvested and destemmed, fermented in used 500 to 1500-litre barrels, and aged for eight months in 500-litre barrels with no batonnage, no fining, no filtration and zero sulphur added. The result is a spicy, intense wine with notes of wild berries, earth and peppery spice. Eight years of bottle age have rounded its edges and deepened its complexity. This is a wine that rewards opening with a proper meal and returning to across the course of a long evening.