Skip to main content
Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant
Toggle Navigation Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant Your Cart

2020 Morgon “Cuvée Corcelette”

Jean Foillard
Discount Eligible $56.00
SOLD OUT

Foillard’s Morgons represent brilliantly crafted expressions of Beaujolais’ grandest terroirs. Technical details (available on our site) cannot adequately communicate this wine’s raison d’être—instead, consider a typical evening chez Foillard: Guests gather. Corks pop. Charcuterie emerges. Stories are told. Laughter rings out. Old vintages turn up. More corks are pulled. More food. Moderation takes a back seat. More laughter. Cheese. Sleep. And that’s what this Morgon—beyond its sweet, earthy fruit and sensuous, velvety texture—is all about.

Anthony Lynch


Technical Information
Wine Type: red
Vintage: 2020
Bottle Size: 750mL
Blend: Gamay
Appellation: Morgon
Country: France
Region: Beaujolais
Producer: Jean Foillard
Winemaker: Jean Foillard
Vineyard: 80 years; 8.6 ha total
Soil: Sandy granite
Farming: Organic (certified)
Alcohol: 14%

More from this Producer or Region

About The Region

Beaujolais

map of Beaujolais

After years of the region’s reputation being co-opted by mass-produced Beaujolais Nouveau and the prevalence of industrial farming, the fortunes of vignerons from the Beaujolais have been on the rise in the past couple of decades. Much of this change is due to Jules Chauvet, a prominent Beaujolais producer who Kermit worked with in the 1980s and arguably the father of the natural wine movement, who advocated not using herbicides or pesticides in vineyards, not chaptalizing, fermenting with ambient yeasts, and vinifying without SO2. Chief among Chauvet’s followers was Marcel Lapierre and his three friends, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton, and Jean-Paul Thévenet—a group of Morgon producers who Kermit dubbed “the Gang of Four.” The espousal of Chauvet’s methods led to a dramatic change in quality of wines from Beaujolais and with that an increased interest and appreciation for the AOC crus, Villages, and regular Beaujolais bottlings.

The crus of Beaujolais are interpreted through the Gamay grape and each illuminate the variety of great terroirs available in the region. Distinguishing itself from the clay and limestone of Burgundy, Beaujolais soils are predominantly decomposed granite, with pockets of blue volcanic rock. The primary vinification method is carbonic maceration, where grapes are not crushed, but instead whole clusters are placed in a tank, thus allowing fermentation to take place inside each grape berry.

Much like the easy-going and friendly nature of many Beaujolais vignerons, the wines too have a lively and easy-drinking spirit. They are versatile at table but make particularly good matches with the local pork sausages and charcuterie. Though often considered a wine that must be drunk young, many of the top crus offer great aging potential.

More from Beaujolais or France

Discount Eligible $19.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $47.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $37.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $68.00
SOLD OUT
Discount Eligible $29.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $28.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $33.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $29.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $37.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $42.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $34.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $25.00
AT CART MAX
Where the newsletter started

Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch

Read the whole story