One of my favourite wines in 2025 is this Chinon called Ampoule from Bertrand & Vincent Marchesseau – and because their Poids Plume 2024 impressed me just as much, I’m gonna name them as one of my favourite producers of 2025 as well. All their wines are organic and well made in a lovely, pure style showing typicity and freshness. They are a pure joy to drink.
cabernet franc
Plessis-Duval Saumur Champigny 2022
Sub 10€ Loire cabernet franc is such a reliable wine category, I almost always love what I buy. From Central Europe where I leave one of the best, easily accessible selection of such wines can be found on Vinatis – you can find many of them reviewed on this site and here is another one I enjoyed recently.
Hungarian flagship reds IV.: Gere Kopar 2020
The last wine from the blindtasting covered by previous posts is probably Hungary’s most famous big red: the Kopar from Gere. It was first made in 1997 if not even earlier, so there’s history to it; it’s made to last and I can confirm that it’s able to age for 15 years or more. Personally I often found it a bit too sweet in the past, but the current release is just great.
Domaine des Roches Neuves Saumur-Champigny 2021
This cabernet franc can be very good in some vintages – like the 2017. But the 2021 is just not good. I had four bottles, all were disappointing. It’s not a good vintage and the wine reflects that.
Bernard Baudry Chinon Le Domaine 2020
Is it low intervention kind of funk or just the regular brett thing of this producer? Not a bad wine at all, although I prefer cleaner styles of Loire Valley cabernet franc and there are plenty of good examples out there including Couly-Dutheil and Bertrand & Vincent Marchesseau, just to name a few…
Lovely Loire Valley cabernet franc: Yannick Amirault La Source 2021

Based on recent vintages, the general quality of Loire Valley cabernet franc is quite high in my experience – at least in the 7-15€ range. These wines have a soul, they are pure, terroir-driven and absolutely delicious. The entry-level red from Yannick Amirault is no exception.
A 100% cabernet franc supertuscan: Duemani 2019
I like cabernet franc, especially when it comes from the Loire-Valley. Single variety wines are also made from it in Tuscany and some of them are true supertuscans – serious wines with fame and a hefty price tag. One of them is Paleo which I tasted in the past, and I always wanted to try another icon, the Duemani.
Fun Villány red: Kiss Gábor Rouge 364 2022
Kiss Gábor is a well-known Villány producer, but he operates on a lesser scale then big names like Gere or Bock. What I tasted from him in the past did not make me a fan, but his 2022 reds are a completely different story. I liked his cabernet franc quite a lot so I bought a bottle of his entry level Rouge 364, and it’s actually almost as good its pricier brother.Four cabernet franc from Hungary
From the Bordeaux varieties it’s cabernet franc which is the most accepted and famous in Hungary. And not just because Villány declared it as its main variety, although no other region focuses on it to this extent. I tried four recently, and I was really happy with only one of them, the Kiss Gábor; the others are not entirely convincing and some are also overpriced.Refreshing Loire Valley cabernet franc – Alfred Rock’M’Roll 2020
Fun label. And indeed, the wine rocks! Continue reading





