Beaujolais-Villages 2022
Jean FoillardJean and Agnès Foillard took over his father’s Domaine in 1980. Most of their vineyards are planted on the Côte du Py, the famed slope outside the town of Villié-Morgon and the pride of Morgon. These granite and schist soils sit on an alluvial fan at the highest point above the town and impart great complexity. Jean follows the teachings of Jules Chauvet, a traditionalist winemaker.

Along with Marcel Lapierre, Jean-Paul Thévenet (wine #1 below!) and Guy Breton of this Gang of Four have returned to the old practices of viticulture and vinification: starting with old vines, never using synthetic herbicides or pesticides, harvesting late, rigorously sorting to remove all but the healthiest grapes, adding minimal doses of sulfur dioxide or none at all, also no filtration.

• Vine Age: 23-58 years old
• Soil Type: Granite (7 ha)
• Vineyards are farmed organically
• Barrels are minimum 2 years old
• Traditional, whole cluster fermentation in concrete tank
• Aged 7 months in concrete tank
• Village parcels located in Villié-Morgon, Lancié, Saint-Amour, and St-Etienne-La-Varenne

For this over-delivering Beaujolais-Villages, Jean sources organic grapes from excellent parcels around his village of Villié-Morgon as well as Lancié, Saint-Amour, and Saint-Étienne-la-Varenne, and ages the wine through an extended élevage more akin to that of his renowned Morgons than to other regional bottlings. Accordingly, the wine evolves slowly, becoming more poised and complete. Evoking pomegranate, rhubarb, and black tea, the result is a beautiful initiation to Jean’s house style, distinguished by a mesmerizing tension between depth, density, silkiness, and elegance.