2023 Foillard

For as long as I've been selling wine, there's one thing I've learned: if you're going to buy Beaujolais, it's hard to go wrong with anything from Domaine Jean Foillard, especially his Morgon Côte du Py. There's a reason it's one of our most requested wines: it simply overdelivers, year in and year out.

This is Gamay at its most complex and expressive, with lifted aromas of violets and wild berries, subtle earth and soil notes, and a palate that's vibrant, concentrated and exceptionally well balanced. It's a mouthful of wine, but it never feels overpowering.

It all began back in the early 1980s, when Foillard became part of a small group of growers that would come to be known as the "Gang of Four," which included friends and neighbors Marcel Lapierre, Guy Breton, and Jean-Paul Thévenet. Together they changed the direction of Beaujolais. They rejected the industrial style that had come to define the region and returned to the traditional teachings of Jules Chauvet, whose philosophy centered on healthy fruit, native fermentations, and letting the vineyard speak with as little intervention as possible. Their commitment to organic and now bio-dynamic farming, coupled with minimal intervention in the winery changed how Beaujolais was viewed, and what was once considered a simple bistro wine suddenly found its place in the cellars of Burgundy collectors around the world.

The most famous vineyard in Morgon, and arguably in all of Beaujolais, is the Côte du Py. In Foillard's hands, these ancient granite soils produce Gamay of remarkable depth, minerality, and precision, with an uncanny ability to age. These are always wines that are approachable in their youth, but they'll reward a few years in the cellar too. I like to serve mine slightly chilled.

We completely sold out our last offer, but I was fortunate enough to secure 60 more bottles. If you missed it the first time around, today is your lucky day. At $45, this wine represents everything I love about Beaujolais done right: honest farming, a legendary vineyard, and a winemaker who's spent forty years proving this region deserves a place at the table with Burgundy's best. Year in and year out this wine more than delivers.