diff --git a/clients/src/main/java/kafka/clients/producer/internals/Sender.java b/clients/src/main/java/kafka/clients/producer/internals/Sender.java
index 5991ce6..a5cc74f 100644
--- a/clients/src/main/java/kafka/clients/producer/internals/Sender.java
+++ b/clients/src/main/java/kafka/clients/producer/internals/Sender.java
@@ -283,7 +283,11 @@ public class Sender implements Runnable {
 
     private void handleMetadataResponse(Struct body, long now) {
         this.metadataFetchInProgress = false;
-        this.metadata.update(ProtoUtils.parseMetadataResponse(body), now);
+        Cluster cluster = ProtoUtils.parseMetadataResponse(body);
+        // the server can give back an empty metadata response (!) if the topic doesn't exist and that is our only
+        // topic, don't use that
+        if (cluster.nodes().size() > 0)
+            this.metadata.update(cluster, now);
     }
 
     /**