A firm Farr Vintners favourite, Foillard's Morgon Côte du Py is a leading light of Cru Beaujolais. It has a depth, complexity and precision that offers a genuine alternative to top wines from the Côte d'Or at a fraction of the price .
Côte du Py lies at the heart of Morgon, with granite and schist forming soils that give the fruit grown here a distinct personality and ageing potential. The vines Foillard owns are up to 90 years old, with no synthetics used in the vineyard since the 1980s. Though Foillard has always been a forward-thinking producer, he does use minimal sulphur additions to ensure the stability of his wines.
Made much like a serious Pinot Noir, whole-bunch fermentation is the norm, together with maturation in barrel - none of which is new - to ensure the terroir and fruit comes through. The resulting wines are ageworthy and precise, overdelivering in the glass and offering terrific value for money.
The 2022 vintage is now available. This was a warm vintage in Beaujolais, one that separated the best from the rest as producers looked for balance and freshness. Foillard was unsurprisingly one of the great successes. Martin says of the vintage: "When the wines are good, they can reach the apotheosis of Beaujolais, and that, my friend, is a wonderful thing to taste." He rates the wine 93 points, praising it's "wonderful mineralité and tension".
We have tasted the wine twice now and the wine is clearly improving in the bottle. It is hard to think of a region producing better quality for the money than Beaujolais' Crus right now, and Foillard is one of the very best.
The 2022 Morgon Côte du Py has another very attractive bouquet with just a touch more fruit intensity than the Côte du Py, wonderful mineralité and tension. Very composed. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, a little sturdier than the Cuvée Corcelette. There’s fine grip toward the finish with a persistent peppery aftertaste. Be patient. 2027 - 2037
Another fabulous effort from Foillard with this delicious Côte du Py, the 2022 has the silkiness of the riper, fuller vintages like 2020 and 2018 yet brings an underlying freshness of a cooler vintage such as 2021. The result is a wine of high definition with disarming approachability that offers incredible value for money. Shiny ruby-purple in the glass, the nose is immediate and alluring with blueberries, ripe strawberries and a mineral, stony undertone. The palate has persistent but fine tannic grip, alluding to the ageing potential without masking the silken blue and red fruits at the core. The velvety texture is matched by moreish waves of fruit. It is a real feat to have such pleasure in a wine clearly capable of ageing. Intense yet never heavy, this will have great appeal to those who have followed Foillard for years, and to drinkers looking to move away from ambitiously priced red Burgundies.
