Eva Fricke was raised in Bremen, Germany, a place better known for beer than wine, the daughter of doctors. Uninterested in medical school, Eva made her way to the Rheingau to study at Geisenheim University before setting off to spread her wings in harvests around the world, from Australia to Bordeaux (Château Cissac in Haut-Médoc) to Ribera del Duero (Pingus). Yet there was something about the Rheingau that called to her. She soon settled in as winemaker at Weingut Leitz, one of the region’s most prolific wineries, playing a significant role in the company’s growth as Technical Director. Curiosity led her to start making her own wine as a side project from a rented parcel in 2006.. And by 2011, she was able to strike out on her own and founded Weingut Eva Fricke.

Over the years, her humble project has grown into a patchwork of 17 hectares of vineyards between Lorch, Eltville, Hattenheim and Kiedrich. Her single-vineyard expressions of Riesling give some of the most exquisite and honest expressions of Rheingau terroir, a territory that she is steadfastly committed to propelling into the highest echelons of recognition when it comes to German winemaking.

Domaine Eva Fricke has been EU organic certified since 2016, and since 2017 has been registered with the “Vegan Society”. Her Rieslings are released in March except for the single vineyard cuvées that are held longer on the lees/in bottle and are released in December.

Located in two contrasting parts of the Rheingau, Eva’s vineyards showcase the diversity and potential of the region’s soils and characters. Vines in the upper Rheingau around Kiedrich and Walluf grow on sandy loess and loam soils, partially mixed with clay, quartzite and riverbed sediments, creating classic Rheingau Rieslings. While her wines from the Northern part of the Rheingau are extremely mineral-driven, even saline at times from the prevalence of slate and quartzite.

Eva’s focus is on the Lorch vineyards - the northernmost portion of the Rheingau, technically part of the Middle Rhine winegrowing region - which produce exceptionally elegant, delicate wines.

Her first ever vineyard site was Korne in Lorch, a place that still makes her eyes twinkle today. She is credited with rescuing the Lorch area from oblivion in 2005, and it has since been propelled into the limelight (a testament to her keen eye for quality). There is a local wind phenomenon inherent to Lorch called the Wisperwind. It is a mountain wind that blows down from the Lorcher Wispervalley at night or early in the morning. The narrow Lorch Valley creates a tube-like effect for mountain wind that emerges from deeper air layers on the slopes of the Taunus, speeding up the breezes and even creating strong squalls of wind at times. When this crisp, cool wind blows, the air is rough and smells of salty algae as it bounces off of the Rhein River. The wisperwind has had effects over time on the area’s geology (steel slopes of exposed quartzite and slate) and influences the growing and ripening conditions of the grapes every vintage.

From the outset, Eva has been committed to organic methods of farming infused with choice elements of biodynamics.

She employs only manual work on the vines which are often up to 70 years old and on steep slopes of more than 44 degrees. Since the beginning in 2006, Eva has used no conventional, chemically synthetic or systemic products in the vineyards. After acquiring a new parcel, she often implements a “detoxification period” to restore soil quality and strong cover crops. Soil management has become key to conserving water resources as well as reducing the amount of copper treatments in the vineyards. Eva uses tinctures and organic preparations to help strengthen the plants and alleviate drought stress.

She believes in the interaction between soil and plants to regulate climate and temperature thus she has taken to increasing greenery in the vineyards to help with air purification, temperature reduction, shade provision, and biodiversity. Intensive winter greening helps nutrients thrive in the soils, protecting it while also storing water while the vine is hibernating.

Eva is committed to her own Selection Massale for replanting vineyards, a process that is carried out in cooperation with the nature conservation authorities who preserve the historically significant cultural landscape of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The winery gleams with stainless steel and an air of precision, no doubt lending to the extraordinary linear quality of Eva’s rieslings. In keeping with Eva’s low intervention philosophy, fermentation is spontaneous and kick-started with native yeasts. The wines spend anywhere from 4-10 months on their fine lees, gathering weight and complexity. Eva has a few basic rules, such as to never allow alcohol in excess of 13.5%, and to preserve acidity as an utmost priority!