| Review: |
"Tasted at the domaine, Foillard's 2017 Morgon Côte du Py is much the same as it showed from my cellar earlier this year. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of cherries, red berries, grilled meats, rose petals and orange rind, it's medium to full-bodied, velvety and fleshy, with fine and powdery tannins, lively acids and a ripe core of fruit. It's a touch richer and more sun-kissed than the stunning 2016 rendition, but this is a very fine Côte de Py from Foillard. It's an open secret that this is one of the Beaujolais's finest addresses. Jean and Agnès Foillard's first vintage was in 1981, but it was in 1985 that he began to work differently, influenced by his neighbor, the late Marcel Lapierre. Lapierre followed négociant and microbiologist Jules Chauvet in rejecting selected yeasts and manipulative wine making in favor of minimal effective sulfur dioxide and carbonic maceration at comparatively low temperatures. Today, Foillard remains true to that approach: His Morgon cuvées see some three weeks of maceration in tank before gentle pressing and élevage in used Burgundy barrels. Chaptalization is eschewed. He also gives his wines a little bottle age before release. His 2017s just arrived on the market this year, as most of his neighbors released their 2018s. Despite his identification with the natural wine movement, Foillard has no tolerance for slovenly winemaking practices or flawed wines, and his bottles are typically models of aromatic purity and graceful aging. I regularly purchase these wines for my own cellar and warmly recommend them to readers." |