Beaujolais in Unmediated Purity
Foillard Mags:
2010 Fleurie & 2011 & 2012 Côte du Py
Foillard produces some of our favorite Beaujolais. We're far from alone here.
Today, we offer a trio of Foillard's rare magnums, including the only mags of his 2010 Fleurie in the country.
There's very little to be said about Jean Foillard, perhaps the most renowned member of Kermit Lynch's spirited Gang of Four in Morgon, that hasn't been said already. We'll just say this: Foillard delivers such clear and delicious Beaujolais that we stuff our cellars with them every vintage.
 |
To start with the 2011 Côte du Py, the 2011 vintage in Beaujolais has round, vibrant fruit with a nice complementing freshness. If you think about a cross of 2009 and 2010, you get a fairly accurate picture. Foillard's style is really successful in the 2011 vintage. There's a vivid, brisk freshness along with silken red fruits and a textured chalky minerality. The ripeness of the vintage endows the wine with the meaty depths that adds fascination to Foillard's wines.
There's no point in mincing words: 2012 in Beaujolais was no walk in the park. The line between failure and success is clearly drawn. It's probably no surprise that Foillard is squarely in the latter category. Foillard's 2012s are some of our absolute favorites of the vintage. We really love Foillard in cooler vintages ('07, '10 and now '12.) His 2012s show the vividness, delineation and straight-up joyful drinking that the best of the vintage offers.
Now, on to Foillard's Fleurie. His Fleurie is exceedingly lithe, super-fine in its texture, a feminine delicacy appropriate for this Cru which is often referred to as the Queen of Beaujolais. In 2010, Fleurie exemplifies this. The wine is the Platonic ideal of Fleurie with its silken plum fruits and charming elegance, revealing perfumed aromatics of strawberry and plums, mingling with a clear soil expression and mineral.
Foillard's Fleurie is sourced from sites of impressive pedigree: the climats of Grille Midi, La Madone and Champagne. The Fleurie is sourced from a mere 2 hectares making this a much more elusive bottling than his legendary Morgon Côte du Py.
Foillard has become increasingly rare in recent years and magnums are now silly rare. It took some work to get the small quantities of wine that we're offering. Still, it's hard to resist the magnum format, wines age so well in it and having mags of Beaujolais around is just cool.
To order, reply to offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits