Jean Foillard is one of those domaines that gives me goosebumps when I see the name on a wine list, or glimpse the now-iconic cursive script of the label on a neighbouring table, especially if the cuvée in question has a few years of bottle age…
Part of a revolutionary movement that can be traced back to the middle of last century, Jean Foillard was an important player – alongside fellow Morgon growers Marcel Lapierre, Jean-Paul Thévenet and Guy Breton (together known as the ‘Gang of Four,’ thanks to Kermit Lynch) – in the transition from industrial farming to organic viticultural methods in Beaujolais in the 1980s. His wines are always captivating and the classical 2024 vintage plays right into the Foillard style, embodying freshness and tension, while carrying an almost weightless power.
Order by midday, Wednesday 9th September
Off the back of two warm, solar vintages, 2024 was a cooler year, challenging at times due to rainfall and mildew pressure. This has typically meant a return to a Beaujolais style of old, with crunchy red fruit, racy freshness, expressive perfume and appetisingly modest alcohol levels. While some may prefer the more generous and succulent fruit character and texture that presents in the Beaujolais vintages of 2022 and 2023 (and these are immediately delicious), my personal preference is for this nervy, spicy, decidedly edgy vintage. It will appeal to Beaujolais purists who enjoy the sappy and more mineral side of gamay.
Jean works with his son Alex who oversees the vineyards as well as contributing in the cellar (and makes his own wines under the Alex Foillard label). The viticultural approach, as you’d expect, is centred around holistic management which eschews the use of synthetic inputs and focuses on vineyard practices which improve soil health and life. Living soils have the potential to create dynamic, living wines, dependent on how the fruit is treated and guided through vinification in the cellar. The Foillards follow a minimal-intervention approach that it is simultaneously one of maximum attention, like all the best practitioners of so-called ‘hands-off’ winemaking. The resulting wines are full of life and that elusive, indefinable quality in wines (because it is a feeling not a flavour): energy.
At ‘Bien Boire en Beaujolais’ in April (technically a trade show but really a big festival of the wine growers of the region), one of the various groups of producers put on a remarkable back vintage tasting. And one of the wines in that line-up was a mature Foillard Côte du Py: a 2006 vintage served en magnum. I’ve never had such an old Foillard and its beauty left me speechless. It is, without question, one of my wines of the year. And I knew at this point I had to bring Foillard to members.
As such, I’m excited to announce our first-ever Foillard offer at The Wine Society!
