Notify me
2023 Beaujolais-Villages
Jean Foillard
For this over-delivering Beaujolais-Villages, Jean sources organic grapes from excellent parcels around his village of Villié-Morgon as well as Lancié, Saint-Amour, and Saint-Étienne-la-Varenne, and ages the wine through an extended élevage more akin to that of his renowned Morgons than to other regional bottlings. Accordingly, the wine evolves slowly, becoming more poised and complete. Evoking pomegranate, rhubarb, and black tea, the result is a beautiful initiation to Jean’s house style, distinguished by a mesmerizing tension between depth, density, silkiness, and elegance.
—Tom Wolf
Wine Type: | red |
Vintage: | 2023 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | Gamay |
Appellation: | Beaujolais-Villages |
Country: | France |
Region: | Beaujolais |
Producer: | Jean Foillard |
Vineyard: | 20 to 55 years old, 7 ha |
Soil: | Granite |
Aging: | Aged 7 months in concrete tank |
Farming: | Organic (certified) |
Alcohol: | 13% |
More from this Producer or Region

2021 Beaujolais Blanc “Terrain Rouge”
France | Beaujolais
Charly Thévenet and his father, Jean Paul, now bottle a range of five different wines in their cellars in Villié-Morgon

2023 Morgon
France | Beaujolais
Silky and perfumed, with no rough edges, this is dangerously swallowable.

2021 Côte de Brouilly
France | Beaujolais
Alex Foillard fashions a Côte-de-Brouilly that strikes a deeper register, saturating the senses with tooth-staining fruit, gritty earth, and just a touch of the good funk.

2023 Juliénas “Beauvernay”
France | Beaujolais
An electric lightning bolt of Gamay from a steep, windy hillside.

2023 Moulin-à-Vent “Vieilles Vignes”
France | Beaujolais
Moulin-à-Vent has a unique, earthy, chewy edge to it that you just can’t find anywhere else.

2023 Beaujolais
France | Beaujolais
Dupeuble’s rouge is thirst-quenching and tangy with loads of violet and réglisse.

2022 Côte de Brouilly
France | Beaujolais
A relatively new addition to Guy Breton’s Beaujolais lineup, this exuberant Côte de Brouilly is flat-out delicious.

2021 Brouilly
France | Beaujolais
March Club Rouge ~ A generous dash of plump, sun-ripened fruit enveloping a granite core.

2023 Côte de Brouilly MAGNUM
France | Beaujolais
Château Thivin’s Côte de Brouilly seamlessly fuses pleasure, class, and intellect.

2021 Côte de Brouilly
France | Beaujolais
A relatively new addition to Guy Breton’s Beaujolais lineup, this exuberant Côte de Brouilly is flat-out delicious.
About The Producer
Jean Foillard
About The Region
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
2024 Beaujolais Villages Rosé
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais
2022 Régnié “Grain & Granit”
Jean Paul et Charly Thévenet France | Beaujolais
2021 Brouilly
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2020 Fleurie
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2023 Fleurie “Les Moriers”
Domaine Chignard France | Beaujolais
2023 Beaujolais Rosé
Domaine Dupeuble France | Beaujolais
2023 Morgon “Vieilles Vignes”
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2020 Brouilly
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2023 Beaujolais
Domaine Dupeuble France | Beaujolais
2023 Juliénas “Beauvernay”
Domaine Chignard France | Beaujolais
2023 Brouilly “Reverdon”
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais
2022 Fleurie
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2024 Beaujolais Villages Rosé
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais
2022 Régnié “Grain & Granit”
Jean Paul et Charly Thévenet France | Beaujolais
2021 Brouilly
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2020 Fleurie
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2023 Fleurie “Les Moriers”
Domaine Chignard France | Beaujolais
2023 Beaujolais Rosé
Domaine Dupeuble France | Beaujolais
2023 Morgon “Vieilles Vignes”
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2020 Brouilly
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2023 Beaujolais
Domaine Dupeuble France | Beaujolais
2023 Juliénas “Beauvernay”
Domaine Chignard France | Beaujolais
2023 Brouilly “Reverdon”
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais
2022 Fleurie
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
Kermit once said...

Kermit once said...
For the wines that I buy I insist that the winemaker leave them whole, intact. I go into the cellars now and select specific barrels or cuvées, and I request that they be bottled without stripping them with filters or other devices. This means that many of our wines will arrive with a smudge of sediment and will throw a more important deposit as time goes by, It also means the wine will taste better.