2019 Domaine Jean Foillard Cote du Py Morgon Beaujolais 750 ml

Steve Martin’s famous line about how to make it in show business is gloriously simple: Be so good they can’t ignore you.

Domaine Jean Foillard’s 2019 Côte du Py Morgon is too freaking good to be ignored. It’s got the supple red fruit to roust Burgundy and California Pinot Noir fans. It shows terroir as beautifully as great Champagne or Riesling, and rewards a few years in the cellar as richly as any red wine. That’s why we love to share the Côte du Py with wine lovers of all kinds and watch their faces as they take their first sip. It’s an awakening.

It didn’t take long after Jean and Agnès Foillard took over Jean’s father’s domaine in 1980 for the path of Beaujolais to change for good. Foillard, whose vineyards are located primarily on the the prized granite and schist hillside outside of Villié-Morgon known as Côte de Py, rejected the styles favored by Beaujolais’ big producers and farmed under the influence of Beaujolais traditionalist Jean Chauvet. 

No bottle captures Foillard’s style—or the style that put “Cru” Beaujolais on the modern wine map—better than this one. Teeming with the minerality imparted by the decomposing soils of the Côte du Py, kept pure by nine months in used oak, it’s a gorgeous and honest wine. Perfectly juicy and earthy, balanced, and endlessly thought-provoking, it’s the kind of wine to open before dinner, drink through the meal, and stick to the entire evening.