Not so long ago, varietal Cabernet Francs were comparatively rare outside the Loire Valley and the northern Italian region of Friuli. Cabernet Franc was generally regarded as a blending grape, invariably one of the lesser partners in Bordeaux-style blends around the globe. Saint Emilion’s Château Cheval Blanc was the rule-proving exception. Yet over the last 20 years, Cabernet Franc has cast off its role as a member of Cabernet Sauvignon’s backing band. These days, it has stepped up to the microphone and is singing ballads of its own.

Isa Bal, Master Sommelier and co-owner of Trivet restaurant in London, is a Cabernet Franc lover, who has noticed the grape’s rising popularity. ‘We’re seeing much greater diversity in terms of where it’s grown,’ he told me before a blind tasting of 23 examples recently. ‘It’s not just about the Loire Valley and Bordeaux.’ (Don’t tell the French, but it seems highly likely that the variety originated in the Spanish Basque country.)

And yet, he continued, it’s ‘a hard grape to pigeon-hole’, despite what he calls the ‘tunnel vision’ that some people have of its aromas and flavours. Is it green and herbaceous? Not always. What about alcohol levels and body? Depends where it’s grown and when it’s picked. Does it need oak, and if so, should it be new? Once again, the jury is out.

Apart from the two of us, there were 22 punters tasting 21 wines. Vintages ranged from 2007 to 2020, alcohol levels from 12.5% to 15%. The countries represented were France, Israel, Italy, Slovenia, South Africa, Turkey (Isa’s birthplace), the United States (California) and Uruguay. France had the most wines (four from the Loire and one – Cheval Blanc, which was one of two blends with Merlot alongside the 2010 Château Kalpak from Turkey – from Bordeaux). I’d like to have seen Argentina, Canada, Croatia, Hungary and Washington State in the line-up, but maybe that’s for next time. I also added two further South African wines from my own cellar – the 2015 Gabriëlskloof Landscape Series and the 2020 Van Loggerenberg Breton – although I was the only person who tasted these as part of the selection. My tasting, in other words, was of 23 wines.

What were the results? The first thing to say is that the overall quality was high; I only scored one wine below 90 points. And the styles on offer were indeed diverse, covering the full range of Cabernet Franc’s different expressions. Whisper it in the Médoc, but Cabernet Franc is arguably more protean than Cabernet Sauvignon, capable of rendering nuances of place and winemaking technique with greater fidelity.

You can read the reviews of my ten favourite wines below. (Remember that I alone tasted those two supplementary Cape Cabernet Francs). The public vote, as it were, didn’t exactly tally with mine. Their top wine – with eight first preferences – was that Turkish red blend, just ahead of the 2020 Warwick Estate from Stellenbosch in South Africa. No wonder Isa Bal was smiling.