Franc & Franc weekend in Villány

Cabernet Franc has found its natural home in Villány, and an important knowledge hub has also found its home in Villány, the so-called Franc & Franc Forum and Tasting Day. Now the Villány team has decided to organise the international conference with Cabernet Franc wine regions of the world in every second year – to create an even better and more fruitful event –, and in the other years Franc & Franc focuses on Villány. This year the Villány-focus version will take place. For the masterclass, only 24 tickets are available!
The opening photo features the Top 12 of last year

What happens?

20 November

– 17.00 Masterclass with the Top 12 Villányi Franc wines of 2025
Venue: Bock Winery, Villány
Speaker: András Horkay DipWSET wine expert, the “voice of Villány”
– 19.00 Welcome dinner
Venue: Grandior Wine Bistro, Günzer Tamás Winery, Villány
A limited number of professionals can participate free of charge. If you are a wine professional and interested, contact the organisers here.
A limited number of tickets are available for wine enthusiasts, the price is 23 990 HUF. At the moment only 24 tickets are available!
Buy your ticket here. In Hungarian, but google can help.
Tickets include the masterclass and the welcome dinner with a welcome drink (additional drink consumption is to be paid individually).
Translation will not be provided.

These were the Top 12 wines last year:

Top 12 Cabernet Franc from Villány in 2025

21 November

– Tasting Day
Only 9 tickets are available!
– Starting from 8.30, participants visit 5 wineries, and at each winery there will be several representatives of other wineries.
– Altogether 60 wineries will pour their Cabernet Franc wines.
Venue of registration and starting the tour: Polgár Winery
Other venues:
– Bock Winery
– Vylyan Vineyard and Winery
– A.Gere Winery
– Vinatus Winery
– Sauska
Tickets cost 39 900 HUF, and tickets include
– the tasting of all the wines,
– transfer between the venues,
– wine bites at each place,
– lunch,
– tasting glass,
– tasting booklet,
Get your tickets here, in Hungarian, but google can help.

Heumann La Trinità Platinum, Kővilla Syrah Top Value Gold

As Gosia Young, wine writer of the British Decanter magazine writes in her article, “…the real thrill of the world’s largest wine competition lies in its margins: the grape you can’t pronounce, the region you couldn’t place on a map, the style nobody expected to triumph.” These 5 surprises are 1. red wine from Hungary, 2. Brazil as a wine country, 3. Žilavka white variety from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 4. orange wines from “the Caucasus to the Pacific Northwest” and 5. Pico wine region in the Portugal Azores.

This year nearly 17,000 wines were judged blind from 58 countries at Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA). See all 2026 results here.

Excerpt from Gosia Young’s recent article (published on 21 August)

Hungary’s hue of red
Hungary is a country that many oenophiles file under sweet wine, and with reason: the honeyed Tokaji Aszú remains one of the world’s great dessert wines and it duly delivered the country a Best in Show this year. But the more surprising story was a red.
For the first time, Hungary earned a Platinum for a red wine: Heumann’s La Trinità, Villány 2019, a 100% Cabernet Franc, part of a banner haul of eight Platinums, up from three last year. It was a wine that turned heads in the judging room.
Dr Caroline Gilby, a Master of Wine who has followed Central and Eastern Europe for decades and was the Regional Chair for the Balkans, Central & Eastern Europe, and Croatia & Slovenia this year, picked out ‘a superb Hungarian Cabernet Franc’ among her personal highlights of the competition. A grape most drinkers associate with the Loire and Bordeaux is finding a second home on the Pannonian plain.

Heumann, La Trinità, Villány, Dél-Pannónia 2019

Platinum, 97 points
Distinctive red cherries and raspberries sit alongside attractive herbal notes, adding layers of complexity. Judicious oak gives structure and depth, with shapely tannins and juicy acidity bringing vibrance. Ageing beautifully, with more to come.
Available in the UK at Novel Wines

Teleki Kővilla, Syrah, Villány, Dél-Pannónia 2024

Top Value Gold, 95 points
Spicy blackcurrant, smoky blueberry and damson are lent extra complexity with violet florals and a minty zing. Fulsome and firm, concentrated and impressively long.
Not available in the UK yet, if interested, contact the export manager

More about Heumann Winery
More about Teleki Wines

Heumann La Trinità 2019: Platinum!

144 Hungarian wines received some sort of acknowledgements at the 23rd edition of DWWA. 8 wines were awarded the highest accolade, the Platinum award, all with 97 points. 7 of the Platinum wines are white (6 from Tokaj, one from Somló), and there is only one red: Heumann La Trinità 2019 from Villány. Congratulations to all Platinum winners!
An article with more Hungarian award-winning wines is coming soon.

Heumann La Trinità 2019, Platinum, 97 points

La Trinità is made of 100% Cabernet Franc, and since it complies with the Villány regulation, it falls under the Villányi Franc appellation. As Taste Hungary explains, “it is named after one of the vineyards from which the grapes come—the Trinitás vineyard in the village of Vokány—though it also comprises grapes from Diósviszló’s Nagyhegy and Siklós’ Akasztófa vineyards. All of the vineyards have loess in common, with the latter containing an especially high proportion of limestone. The limestone adds extra structure-building acidity that delivers both freshness (often missing in Villányi Franc) and longevity to this low-yield wine.” La Trinità was fermented in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks, and then aged in 225-liter Hungarian barrels for 24 months.
Decanter panel review:
“Distinctive red cherries and raspberries in amongst attractive herbal notes adding layers of complexity. Judicious oak bestows structure and depth with shapely tannins in hold, and juicy acidity gives vibrance. Ageing beautifully with more to come.”
At UK distributor Novel Wines at the moment vintage 2018 is available.
More about Heumann Winery

Heumann wines are available in several countries, for example in Belgium at QWine, in Switzerland at Heumann Weine, Cave Gevin, Hunderweinhaus, Le Bouchon Vinothek and at Vinebration.

See all Hungarian Platinum winners here

Unique reds including Terra Tartaro with 96 points!

In the upcoming days we will share a couple of notes written by Stuart Pigott, a seasoned wine writer with his distinct, peculiar style. He has recently tasted wines from several Hungarian wineries, let us start by his wine reviews of Heumann wines.

100% human, 0% bullshit

Stuart Pigott lives in German, but he is a true British scholar with a unique voice, sophisticated, yet down-to-earth style. For many wine professionals he was known as a wine critic on JamesSuckling.com, but recently he has started a new online wine medium with several exciting articles!
“There will NEVER be any advertising here, and NOBODY in the wine industry will ever buy space here. There is NO TRACKING of users beyond anonymous stats such as how many of you looked at which story (to help us serve you better). We will NEVER sell any data and our sole source of income is paid subscriptions.
All the material published on this website is 100% the product of natural intelligence, meaning that we NEVER USE AI.  Every text is in ENGLISH and however small, is marked with the initials of the author.” – says Stuart Pigott on his new website.
Isn’t it promising? For us it is! We will definitely visit stuartpigott.com again and again!
StuartPigott.com

New age in Villány

“Already 20 years ago I became aware that there were alternative winemakers in Villány (…). Then, there’s the Heumann winery of the Swiss-German couple Evelyne and Erhard Heumann. Their wines are clearly French and Italian-inspired, but have a completely different style to those of the local winemakers. So, contemporary Villány is a region with multiple wine personalities. Welcome to the New Wine Hungary!” – comments Stuart Pigott in his recent article on Villány.
Heumann wine reviews below the photo.

16–18 May 2026, Vienna

A professional jury has selected 25 Hungarian Kékfrankos (Blaufränkisch) wines, which will represent the variety at VieVinum Austrian wine expo on 16–18 May 2026 in Vienna.
For the list of 25 wines scroll down.

Selected wines by wine region

9 Szekszárd,
7 Villány,
3 Sopron,
2 Balaton-felvidék,
1 Badacsony,
1 Balatonfüred–Csopak,
1 Eger,
1 Etyek–Buda

Wines from our cover photo

Bock Kékfrankos Selection 2023, Villány

Yield controlled fruit from Fekete-hegy vineyard. Fermentation in stainless steel, ageing in 2nd use barrique. Cherry, sour cherry and chocolate on the nose and palate.
More about the winery

Etyeki Kúria MSV Konkrét Kékfrankos 2023, Sopron

Hand harvest, gentle destemming, fermentation on the skin. Ageing for a year in concrete tank. Pure fruitiness – sour cherry, cherry, redcurrant – complemented by a hint of spiciness and some minerality.
More about the winery

Heimann Bati Kereszt Kékfrankos 2021, Szekszárd

The grape comes from the north-facing Bati Kereszt vineyard. Beautiful aroma with a lighter body, very floral, cool, and playful. The 2021 vintage is particularly young and vibrant.

More about the winery

“Specialists & Independents Together” present their wines tomorrow in London at The Royal Horticultural Halls. Novel Wines is one of the exhibitors, presenting wines – among others – from Hungary, for example the two red wines from Heumann Winery, Villány.
Background photo: Pexels / Kris Lucas

Time: 10.30am – 5.00pm
Venue: The Royal Horticultural Halls, The Lindley Hall, 80 Vincent Square, London SW1P 2PB
Pre-registration will close at midday on Tuesday 24th February.
Registration on the spot is also possible, just bring your business card.
Exhibitors: there are 31 exhibitors at the London event, see the list here.
More information

Novel Wines is an independent, award-winning wine merchant and importer specialising in lesser-known quality wines from emerging regions.

Novel Wines descriptions about the Heimann wines

Heumann Blue Secret, 2018

– Soft, smooth red wine with blackberries, cherries and plums.
– A medium-full bodied red wine from Villany, Hungary. It’s a blend of Kekfrankos, Merlot & Cabernet Sauvignon with 14.0% abv.
– Suitable for Vegetarians.
– You’ll like this if you like…
Rioja or Malbec red wines, drinking red wine in front of a roaring fire, or smooth and silky wines with less tannin.
– Gold, Mundus Vini 2020.
– Brand new blend from Hungary’s leading red wine area, Villany, in the south of the country. Selected from 14-24 year old vines grown on loess and limestone soils, the fruit is carefully ripened and gently crushed. The resulting fruit-forward wine has aromas of red cherries and vanilla with a deep purple colour and notes of smooth blackberries, cherries and plums on the palate. The tannins are soft and gentle with a rather long finish.
– Food pairing:
Pairs beautifully with: Braised beef, pulled pork with barbeque dressing, pepperoni pizza, shepherd’s pie, Lancashire hot pot, roast game or meatballs in tomato sauce.

Heumann La Trinitá, 2018

– Delightful Villanyi Franc with rich flavours of cassis, dark chocolate and black fruits over fine tannin.
– Heumann La Trinitá Villanyi Franc is a full bodied red wine from Villány, Hungary. It’s 100% Cabernet Franc with 15.0% abv.
– Suitable for Vegans.
– Introducing the top wine from Swiss winemakers Evelyne and Erhard Heumann, made in the warmth of the Villány region. Villány is a landscape perfectly suited to growing a fuller style of Cabernet Franc that retains structure, complexity and fine tannin. While most of the soil is loess, there’s a high proportion of limestone, contributing freshness and concentration to the grapes. It does this by balancing Villány’s warm climate with adequate water retention in the soils so the vines do not overstress or suffer drought. The wine is fermented in temperature controlled tanks and matured in 225L Hungarian oak barriques for 24 months. The resulting wine is dark purple in colour with deep black fruit aromas. Good acidity, a layered structure and finely grained tannin evoke the wine’s complex character; think a mix of mulberries, black cherry and spice with dark chocolate and woody hints. This is a very satisfying red!
– Food pairing.
Pairs beautifully with: Smoky BBQ food, pork belly, goose liver pate, beef burgers, slow cooked lamb stew, meatballs in tomato sauce, roasted root veggies or beluga lentils. Cheese pairing: Mature Brie, Camembert or strong Tomme de Savoie.

More about Heumann Winery

Importer of the month: Hundert Weinhaus

Wineries attend exhibitions to network and secure orders, but this is hard work and extremely costly, and sometimes an exhibition yields no results but costs a lot of money. However, this is not the case with the Weinfestival Basel. The Swiss go there to taste and then order, so in addition to fruitful connections, there is also immediate success. Last November was a success for the Villány wineries exhibiting, and István Bicsek and Marietta, the owners of the Hundert Weinhaus wine shop, played a major role in this.
Author: Ágnes Németh

Contact

Hundert Weinhaus
Address: Leuenallee 8A, CH-4702 Oensingen, Switzerland
Email: info@hundertweinhaus.com
Tel: +41 (0)79 555 99 15
https://hundertweinhaus.com/

Wineries in the Hundert Weinhaus portfolio

A Gere Winery (Villány), Árvai Family Winery (Tokaj), Bock Winery (Villány), Bodri Winery (Szekszárd), Erzsébet Cellar (Tokaj), Eszterbauer Winery (Szekszárd), Fritz Cellar (Szekszárd), Gróf Degenfeld Estate (Tokaj), Günzer Winery (Villány), Heumann Winery (Villány), Hétszőlő (Tokaj), Jammertal Wine Estate (Villány), Kikelet Winery (Tokaj), Koch Winery (Hajós–Baja / Villány), Mészáros Winery (Szekszárd), Pajzos (Tokaj), Ruppert Winery (Villány), Teleki Wines (Villány), Thummerer Winery (Eger), Törley Winery (Etyek–Buda), Tornai Winery (Somló), Vylyan Vineyard and Winery (Villány)

Foreword

I have never taken so long to write an article, and I am solely to blame for this. I usually send my questions for the Importer of the Month series by email, which is what I did in the case of Hundert Weinhaus – roughly two years ago. However, Marietta Bicsek, one half of the owner couple, was busy preparing for a pre-Christmas expo and didn’t want to bother with writing, so she called me. I was on vacation at the time, walking around Bordeaux with my children, and unfortunately, by the time I got home, my memory of our pleasant and informative phone conversation had faded. I felt ashamed about this, and that was the end of it. Until last November, when we attended the Franc & Franc conference in Villány together, picked up where we left off, talked a lot, and I got to know two wonderful people in Marietta and István.

After the first Swiss Furmint February

This Sunday, February 1, the first event promoting Furmint took place with the participation of seven Hungarian wine merchants, and of course Marietta and István were there too. “The audience was primarily professional, the masterclass led by Lilla Fülöp was a great experience, and finally, all the merchants living in Switzerland who distribute Hungarian wines were present at the same time with their excellent wines. In the evening, we had dinner at the same table to discuss the events of the day. Jörg Waldthaler, the organizer of the event, did a lot to make this happen, and we are confident that the promotion of Hungarian wines in this form will continue.”

Waiting for the sun, waiting for the spring, let us enjoy some great white wine made of black grape, as a sort of transition from January, the coldest month, to February, the month of carnivals in disguise. Due to TasteHungary.eu you can order it from any European country.

Heumann Winery has always been famous for making brilliant Riesling wines, due the location of their vineyards in the Siklós sub-region of Villány wine region. Here the soil mainly consists of loess with high proportion of limestone. This fairly new white Merlot is made of the same Merlot they use for the red wine, from Városhegy vineyard in Siklós, with 20-year-old vines, with a yield of only 40 hl / hectare. Harvest took place on 22 August.

The grape was destemmed, immediately pressed, and the alcoholic fermentation took place in temperature controlled stainless-steel tanks at 16° C. In spite of the practice in the Swiss white Merlot region, Ticino, there was no malolactic fermentation. The wine was kept on fine yeast for 4 months. It was bottled on 5 February, 2025.
Alcohol: 13.5%, acidity: 5.7 g/l, residual sugar: 2.7 g/l.
Tasting note: Pale colour. Intense flavours of red fruit and cassis. Fruity lemon acidity, well integrated in the creamy body. Very spicy, long lasting.

Order it from any European country
More about Heumann Winery

An earlier article about the “normal” red Merlot by Heumann Winery

Heumann Merlot – a wine to keep or enjoy now

Heumann wines are available in several countries, for example in the United Kingdom at Novel Wine. In Belgium at QWine, in Switzerland at Heumann Weine, Cave Gevin, Hunderweinhaus, Le Bouchon Vinothek and at Vinebration.

Cork Croatia tasting of 68 wines from 6 countries

Last month Croatian online wine publication, Cork Croatia held one of the broadest tastings of Kékfrankos / Blaufränkisch / / Frankovka (etc) grape variety. 4 of the 5 Grand Gold winners are Hungarian wines!

The Zagreb tasting is one of the most comprehensive panel tastings of the variety, the 68 wines cover the territory of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, the region where Kékfrankos (as we call it) became significant and acknowledged. The event took place at LuMa Wine & Friends wine bar. Zoltán Győrffy Hungarian wine writer, editor-in-chief of Pécsi Borozó helped recruit samples and participated in the jury.
Tasters:
Dr. Ivan Pejić, mgr. Franjo Francem, Ina Bednar, Jana Koščec, Željko Suhadolnik, Ivan Dropuljić, Siniša Medenica, Ivo Kozarčanin, Tomo Jakopović, Darko Lugarić, Zoltán Győrffy.

The Grand Gold Winners

– Jackfall Kékfrankos (Villány) 2020 (HUN)
– Stier Kékfrankos (Villány) 2021 (HUN)
– Heumann Kékfrankos Reserve (Villány) 2018 (HUN)
– Fyrmonia Kékfrankos – Frankovka Modra 2022 (SVK)
– Thummerer Kékfrankos Superior Válogatás (Eger) 2021 (HUN)
Best of country and gold winner wines are below the photos

105 wines from 10 countries tasted by Tamlyn Currin

As we reported earlier, Tamlyn Currin, the brilliant wine expert at JancisRobinson.com, took part in a cross-border tasting event of Furmint, Olaszrizling (Welschriesling) and Kékfrankos (Blaufränkisch) wines, held in the Slovenian village of Kog. Today, let us introduce two of the highest scored Hungarian Kékfrankos wines made by Heimann and Heumann.

The event was organized by the Kog 25 Pannonia association, which consists of local winemakers and an Irish couple who are wine merchants and cultivate a small area of land in Slovenia. The blind tasting included a workshop dedicated to each variety.

Read the whole article (subscription is needed, but it is worth it)

Thanks for not overoaking!

The finest examples of this variety are still produced in Austria, but Tamlyn Currin pointed out that Hungarian Kékfrankos wines are also shining brightly thanks to the fact that winemakers no longer insist on heavy oak ageing. Altogether 35 Kékfrankos (or Blaufränkisch, Lemberger, Frankovka etc.) were tasted. The highest score was 18 points, achieved by an Austrian and a Slovenian wine. Seven wines received 17.5 points: one Croatian, five Austrian, and half-Hungarian (and half Austrian), Franz Weninger’s 2021 Balf Kéfrankos. Among the 8 wines with 17 points, there are more Hungarian wines, one Vida, one Heumann, one Heimann & Fiai wine, and Frigyes Bott (Slovakia), also considered Hungarian, receiving this score.

 

Heimann or Heumann?
If you think that these surnames sound German, you are right. Heimann family is of Swabian origin living in Szekszárd, while Erhard Heumann is a German gentleman living in Villány with his Swiss wife.

Heimann & Fiai Szívem Kékfrankos 2020, Szekszárd (17/20 pts)

Tamlyn Currin’s wine review:
Cherry sherbet and raspberries. Very fine tannins. Unusual. Lots of white pepper. Zigzag energy, crackling with energy. Super-grippy tannins but they’re not drying. Fine and high-wired, long and very fragrant.
Drink: 2024 – 2030
More about Heimann & Fiai wines

Heumann Reserve Kékfrankos 2020, Villány (17/20 pts)

Tamlyn Currin’s wine review:
Bitter chocolate and a tangle of wild herbs. Fennel and caraway, black fruit. Tannins underscoring the fruit, and then strikethrough. Just like that. The fruit steps back in shock and then, resilient, comes back forward trailing bitter spices. Complex and stubborn. Very savoury. Peppery from mid palate to the end. Sculpted.
Drink: 2025 – 2032
More about Heumann wines