Eva Fricke Lorchhauser Seligmacher Riesling

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The Fricke 2008 Lorchhauser Seligmacher Riesling reflects a site in which thick adders of quartzite traverse the slate, a combination that frequently seems to result (as in Rudesheim’s Berg Schlossberg) in ingratiating salinity and tendency toward tropical fruits as well as aromatic herbs. The 9.8 grams of sugar present also help mitigate a tendency toward severity as well as explain why the wine is not legally trocken, although – trust me – it tastes plenty dry! Sage, catnip, and lemon zest in the nose put one in mind of Muscat, but the bright refreshment, sheer juiciness, and invigorating salinity here would be rare in that variety. Furthermore, there is a subtle suggestion of creaminess of texture even amid such brightness and zesty piquancy as this wine displays, as well as a sense of delicacy and interactive dynamic – featuring herbs, fresh citrus, salt, fruit pits and toasted nuts – typical of many of the best 2008s. By contrast – and even allowing for a late and thus at the time of my tasting extremely recent bottling – an intensely pungent Lorcher Krone of 13% alcohol lacked levity or charm and thus came off as somewhat austere. Eva Fricke works full-time with Johannes Leitz in Rudesheim. “I started out with a Rudesheimer Berg Rottland idea,” she says, but then she looked downstream and around the great northerly curve in the Rhine to Lorch and Lorchhausen, “and I saw these soils, these old vines, and these exposures and I though ‘that’s just got to turn out well.’” She now owns as well as rents tiny plots in those villages. The results (based on my assessment of these 2008s – Fricke in fact began, with two wines, in 2006) are impressive if tending toward austerity, and reflect the unique character of Riesling from these steep slate sites, which – meant as absolutely no criticism – is more Mittelrhein- than Rheingau-like. I should note that Fricke says her experience thus far indicates that her wines need half a year to truly recover from bottling, which these 2008s were not even close to having received when I tasted them last September.Importer: Farm Wine Imports, Sausalito, CA; tel. (415) 331-4906