EVA FRICKE: Twenty Years of Reinventing the Rheingau

By Stuart Pigott - last revision: 12.09.26

The first time we met, Eva Fricke sat at the table silently listening into my discussion with Hajo Becker at the J.B.Becker winery in Niederwalluf/Rheingau on the 20th November, 2003. I’d already been following Becker for almost 20 years, a period during which the Rheingau struggled to set a new course or return to the old one that it drifted off long before. Hajo Becker was and remains a lone wolf winegrower, and I was visiting to taste the latest installment of his unique vision of Rheingau Riesling. If, as I left, you’d told me that within a decade his new employee from the North of Germany would become one of the nation’s most dynamic quality wine producers, then I would probably have answered, "who?"

Now let's Flash Forward to just eight years ago and imagine you tell me that Eva Fricke will shortly take over a vineyard in Eltville - far from the most sexy location in the Rheingau - and that in September 2026 I would give a wine from those vines 100 points, then I'd still have been a little sceptical, maybe answering, „really?“ But that’s exactly what happened. The Eva Fricke Rheingau Riesling Etville Collection Dry 2025 is one of the most extraordinary dry white wines I ever tasted. Of course, this begs the question: how on earth all of this was possible ?

It seems I'm not alone in asking myself this question, and that many years ago members of the Rheingau wine industry started asking themselves this question about Eva. Some of them - all men - did so because they were unable to believe that a woman from outside their homeland could achieve such great success and receive such high accolades, but they did not. Their thinking was marinated in concentrated envy; one of the most power acids known to man. In order to avoid the conclusion that her talent and commitment were greater than theirs, they turned to obstructing and denigrating her. Nietzsche called people who are gripped by envy tarantulas. Of course, I see something totally different from them: Eva's tireless striving for excellence persued with the greatest determination over the 20 years since she founded the Eva Fricke winery with the 2006 vintage.

Her initial focus on Lorch in the forgotten Northwest of the region was in good part a pragmatic descision, since it was relatively easy and cheap to obtain old vineyards there. Today it's sometimes posssible to lease or buy land in themost legendary vineyard sites of the Rhingau, but 20 years ago that was impossible. Eva's plots in the Krone, or crown, site of Lorch became one of the most important elements of the rediscovery of the Lost World of Lorch Riesling. A handful of otehr winemakers shared her fascination with the sleek brilliance and intensely stony personality of these wines.

Already the Eva Fricke Rheingau Riesling Krone trocken 2007 was a remarkable wine of exactly this kind, but it was only the beginning of the long journey to her 2025 vintage wines. And although Lorch remains the main focus of her activity, the winery was never based there. By the time of my first visit more than fifteen years ago she was housed in the Kötherhof, a historic building in Kiedrich. Then, in August 2015 she moved into her current unspectacularly modern location on the edge of Eltville. Some colleagues told me that it is boring, but all these decisions pragmatic improvisations of a kind that the Rheingau Tarantulas would never have considered themselves, according to the motto: "but, that's impossible!"

True as all the above is, it isn't adequate to explain the pure inspiration of Eva Fricke's 2025vintage wines. You see, it ignores the most crucical aspect of Eva Fricke’s story: the way the goal she persued was never exactly defined, and with time became ever more open-ended, until it was a Journey into the Unknown. How often does each of us say to ourselves, "this is possible, but that's impossible!“ Each of us has a tiny tarantula inside us. Of course, it's very difficult to set sail in a decisive direction and THROW AWAY THE MAPS - in this context the preconceptions of what kind of wines can be produced where and how - then to unwaveringly accept the destination you reach after a long and arduous journey, regardless what it looks, sounds, feels, smells and tastes like. This is what the so frequently discussed and so seldom defined "low-intevention winemaking" means when undertaken in a thoroughly uncompromising way, as Eva Fricke does.

The Queen Deserves Her Crown!

GREAT VALUE WINES FROM EVA FRICKE

Eva Fricke  Rheingau  Riesling  trocken  2025 - 12.5% / A huge mouthfull of ripest citrus - all the colours and everything from blossoms to zest! - plus beautifully ripe peach. Stunningly vivid with a joyful energy that keeps this very fresh at the finish. 93 (SP)

Eva Fricke  Rheingau  Riesling  Lorch trocken  2025 - 12.5% / Gaze deep into this crystal that glitters in all the colours of the Riesling rainbow and forget the world. Also all the wild herbs of thesevineyards that falls precipitously into the Rhine. Fantastic concentrationfor a village wine, but every bit as much finesse. Incredible energy at the dynamic and pristine finish. 95 (SP)

NOTE: Only for paying subscribers the notes for all 22 Eva Fricke wines I tasted can be found below.