Our eccentric, Berlin-based, journalist mate Stuart Pigott has often tipped us on hot new growers. “Stuart here. I must tell you about something really special. Eva Fricke. She’s the winemaker at Leitz and has been doing her own thing on the side. I told her she should charge double what everyone else is charging. ” Thanks, Stuart. Very helpful! Roll forward a few weeks and we’re back in Germany having dinner with Erni Loosen. Yes. La-di-dah. He asks who we’re seeing and I mention Eva Fricke. “Oh, I know Eva.” What I’d neglected to say was that we hadn’t actually made the call yet. Next day we get a call from Eva, who is in London showing Leitz wines. “Eva here. I’m sorry I didn’t realise we had a meeting” (well we didn’t, yet) “I just wanted to make sure I would be there to meet you.” The jungle wire works again. Fantastic. You only have to think it and say it out loud, even if it’s not actually to the right person, and lo-and-behold it happens! If only that was always the case. So the following evening, the striking, blue-eyed woman from Bremen shows up at Zum Krug for dinner with her two bottles. “I have a half hectare across two red slate terraces at Lorch. I was looking for a special soil. I was looking for slate, which is hard to find on the Rheingau.” And the wine is delicious. Intense, but not showy.
Wind forward three years and Eva has finally given up her 24/7 job at Leitz to concentrate on her own wines.
