Skip to main content
Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant
Toggle Navigation Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant Your Cart

2020 Beaujolais-Villages

Alex Foillard
Discount Eligible $31.00
SOLD OUT

Alex may be young, but his wines show plenty of wisdom and depth. In fact, Alex’s Beaujolais-Villages is a sort of tightrope act, looking for that Guy Breton-esque burst of airy pleasure, mixed with a, dare I say it, Jean Foillard-like depth and grip. I was hoping to avoid adding the inevitable mention of Jean when speaking about Alex’s wines, but I just can’t help but think of this as the most compelling and delicious Beaujolais cross-pollination one could wish for.

Chris Santini


Technical Information
Wine Type: red
Vintage: 2020
Bottle Size: 750mL
Blend: Gamay
Appellation: Beaujolais-Villages
Country: France
Region: Beaujolais
Producer: Alex Foillard
Winemaker: Alex Foillard
Vineyard: 70 years old
Soil: Limestone, Sand
Farming: Organic (practicing)
Alcohol: 13%

More from this Producer or Region

About The Region

Beaujolais

map of Beaujolais

After years of the region’s reputation being co-opted by mass-produced Beaujolais Nouveau and the prevalence of industrial farming, the fortunes of vignerons from the Beaujolais have been on the rise in the past couple of decades. Much of this change is due to Jules Chauvet, a prominent Beaujolais producer who Kermit worked with in the 1980s and arguably the father of the natural wine movement, who advocated not using herbicides or pesticides in vineyards, not chaptalizing, fermenting with ambient yeasts, and vinifying without SO2. Chief among Chauvet’s followers was Marcel Lapierre and his three friends, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton, and Jean-Paul Thévenet—a group of Morgon producers who Kermit dubbed “the Gang of Four.” The espousal of Chauvet’s methods led to a dramatic change in quality of wines from Beaujolais and with that an increased interest and appreciation for the AOC crus, Villages, and regular Beaujolais bottlings.

The crus of Beaujolais are interpreted through the Gamay grape and each illuminate the variety of great terroirs available in the region. Distinguishing itself from the clay and limestone of Burgundy, Beaujolais soils are predominantly decomposed granite, with pockets of blue volcanic rock. The primary vinification method is carbonic maceration, where grapes are not crushed, but instead whole clusters are placed in a tank, thus allowing fermentation to take place inside each grape berry.

Much like the easy-going and friendly nature of many Beaujolais vignerons, the wines too have a lively and easy-drinking spirit. They are versatile at table but make particularly good matches with the local pork sausages and charcuterie. Though often considered a wine that must be drunk young, many of the top crus offer great aging potential.

More from Beaujolais or France

Discount Eligible $29.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $46.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $37.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $39.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $29.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $35.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $20.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $42.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $45.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $56.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $25.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $36.00
AT CART MAX
Old cob-webbed wine bottles

Living wines have ups and downs just as people do, periods of glory and dog days, too. If wine did not remind me of real life, I would not care about it so much.