2015 Morgon Côte-du-Py

Foillard’s are some of the best bottlings from the excellent 2015 vintage and while prices have been on the rise for the last several years these wines still deliver outstanding value compared to those of similar quality from other regions of France. The elegant style that’s emphasized here shines in ripe years like 2015 (as well as 2009 and 2003) and while this collection does show a greater degree of richness than is typical of the domaine, the wines are by no means weighty or leaning into dark fruit, much less confiture territory. Foillard’s son, Alex, is now fully engaged in his family’s vineyards and cellar and he has also purchased vines of his own, half of a hectare at Brouilly and a full hectare at Côte-de-Brouilly. The first wines to be released under his own name will be from 2016. They’re really, really good, by the way. Better than that, in fact. Also of note is that starting with the 2016 vintage Foillard is now bottling a Beaujolais-Villages, using fruit that used to go into his excellent Beaujolais-Nouveau. He told me that while some of his customers will miss the “fun part” of the Nouveau “the fruit was too good to not let it be made into a real wine instead of a party wine.”