Jean Foillard Fleurie 2023

Jean Foillard is a founding member of the Gang of Four — those four Morgon producers mentored by Jules Chauvet who quietly transformed how the world thinks about Beaujolais — and his move into Fleurie a decade ago caused a genuine ripple of excitement through the French wine trade. He did so with very old vines in two sites revered by insiders as Fleurie's finest: Grille-Midi and La Madone — a choice that tells you everything about the seriousness of intent. The soils are light and sandy granite, vinified in Foillard's signature manner: whole-cluster, gentle semi-carbonic maceration, indigenous yeasts, no additions, then aged in old Burgundian barrels for six to nine months without new oak and with minimal sulphur. 

Where Foillard's Morgons are built for the long term, the Fleurie is the more immediately giving and perfumed expression — Fleurie's granitic arène delivering that famous floral lift that no other cru in Beaujolais quite matches. A generous and open bouquet of iris, red cherry, fennel and blackcurrant leaf — all of it arriving effortlessly and without announcement. Charming with floral notes and berries, bright and energetic, but also grounded with soil, truffles and herbs — a murky forest floor — graceful with smooth and refined tannins, a superb expression of Gamay and so easy to drink.