2021 Eva Fricke Riesling Mélange
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Monday, July 3, 2023 - A lot of the winemakers feel that 2021, for all its problems, gave them a chance to make wines harking back to the cooler 1970's. Eva Fricke is one of these.
I am never sure how to see the products of wines that come from difficult years. Often the difficulties manifest in difficult wines, sometimes the wines rise above the difficulties. My father kept a small cellar and it included a selection of European wines and I recall drinking German Rieslings with him and they were vintages from the 1970s. I was struck by the floral and delicate nature of the wines. As such, I was intrigued by references to wines harking back to that time.
I will have to admit I am an agnostic about the 2021's I have had to date. They are, without doubt more elegant and taught than many recent vintages and there is attraction in that. They still show those glorious tropical fruit and citrus combinations that I find intoxicating and that are so prominent in recent vintages. However, I sometimes feel I am distracted by a slight malic (green apple) sourness and a hardness that jars. It is not a situation where these aspects are so prominent that you can just say 'No' to the wine. For many (and justifiably) this aspect will be what makes the vintage superior to some recent years, the exact thing that produces tension and cut.
I think any objective assessment, looking at varietal character, regionality, length and intensity would have to rate this wine as 'Outstanding'. Where you fall on the nuance doesn't change that, though it may impact the quantity you buy.
The wines don't resemble what I recall of 1970's vintage German Moselle and Rhine Rieslings, but memory can be fickle and I suspect that to get that floral and ethereal character today you may have to go to Nahe. I don't mind that and I can't help but love the wines coming out of Moselle and the Rhine today.
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