The 2024 Morgon Côte du Py has a little more bandwidth and complexity compared to the Corcelette, a mélange of red and black fruit, black tea leaves and crushed stone. The palate is fresh and lively on the entry, a Côte du Py with a skip in its step and an assiduous sprinkling of white pepper towards the harmonious finish. Excellent.

As usual, I tasted the wines of Jean Foillard (one of the original Gang of Four), together with his son Alex Foillard’s wines at their winery in Villié-Morgon. These reds undergo 100% carbonic maceration and 100% whole bunch using natural yeasts. “The 2024 season was tricky in terms of rain. We had small windows in which to make treatments,” Fanny Bellenger, who works with Alex Foillard, told me. “Everything had to be done by hand.” These wines have earned a reputation for being standard-bearers of natural Beaujolais, and the Foillards’ sought-after 3.14 cuvée from Morgon Côte du Py (Py…π…get it?) is maturing beautifully in bottle. I am not so keen on their newly introduced white wine, which seems oxidative. - Neal Martin March 2026

• Gamay vines top out at 93 years of age

• Schist, Granite, Manganese soils

• Traditional, whole cluster fermentation lasts from 3-4 weeks

• Aged for 6-9 months in used oak barrels

• Old Barrels are a minimum 2 years old

• Vineyards are farmed organically

• Unfiltered and with no added SO2 during vinification