Jean Foillard Morgon Corcelette 2024

More about Jean Foillard

Jean Foillard is a member of the Gang of Four. No, that’s not an underground East Village band from the 1980s, but four guys who make really good wine in the Beaujolais Cru of Morgon. They are linked together by two things. Two dudes, actually. The first is Jules Chauvet, who figured out how to make clean and pure wine in Beaujolais without the use of sulphur. Chauvet never really made it big in America as a winemaker; Beaujolais just wasn't considered a "great" wine back in the '80s. But he taught Foillard — and the three others, Lapierre, Breton, and Thevenet — how to do it themselves.

The second dude is Kermit Lynch, who fell in love with the magic of what they were doing, back when all his neighbors in California were drinking Chardonnay with ice cubes. To this day, Kermit imports all four producers. They're all great, of course… But we all have our favorites. If like many of us you prefer Beaujolais with depth and age-ability, then Foillard is probably your fave.

Having inspired a new generation of vignerons who, like him, reject the use of chemicals and excessive sulfur, Foillard remains in a league of his own. Admired as a rebel and iconoclast, he might better be described as a neo-classicist. Made using traditional cellar practices including extended whole cluster fermentation and aging in neutral Burgundy barrels, his wines have a platonic purity many strive for but few capture.

A skilled and meticulous craftsman, Foillard also possesses a remarkable set of tools. His old, low yielding vines are located in the most prized vineyards of Morgon and Fleurie. The weathered granitic soils of these incredible sites provide a driving minerality offsetting the aromatic delicacy of Foillard’s fruit. And, while in their youth, Foillard’s wines deliver all the chill-able freshness we look for in Beaujolais, their mineral gravitas make them some of the most serious and age-worthy expressions France has to offer.