A Special Wine From one of the Gangmembers

12/19/2008 -

(Agnes Foillard at Deauville)

All wine geeks and Beaujolais fans know of the Gang of Four - great Morgon producers imported by Kermit Lynch - Breton, Thevenet, Foillard and Lapierre. We at Chambers Street Wines have drunk countless bottles of these wines at differing points in their evolution and have loved them all (well, most of them, anyway…).  Last February at the natural wine fair in Deauville, Agnes Foillard was pouring and there was a new bottling she had that I was not familiar with. It was the Morgon “Cuvèe Corcelette.” The soil is more sandy in this cuvèe and the vines are 80 years old. At the Dive Bouteille we tasted the 2006 Corcelette which could only be purchased at the three outlets of the famous European wine store, Lavinia. My notes on the 2006 are as follows. “Very pretty nose, that was pure, floral with a heavy dose of violets. Extremely concentrated with juicy acidity giving this a luscious mouthfeel with a pure, fresh and mineral finish. This was just brilliant.” We made inquiries through the proper channels and are happy to report that we have obtained a small quantity of the 2007, which seems to be available only chez Foillard and at CSW.

So the 2007 Foillard Cuvèe Corcelette is light to medium-bodied and extremely pretty, as are the best of the 07 Beaujolais, except it has a little more stuffing and structure to reward cellar time. At first when it is opened there is a lovely nose of cherries, strawberries, wet earth and a certain Gamay-like quality that makes this unmistakably Morgon. The tannins after three days become more prominent but the fruit does also. The fruit is ripe, red and playful yet backed by serious structure, and the palate becomes richly textured. The finish is amazingly long and is surely one of the finest wines of the vintage. I would say it should develop for 5 to 8 years or beyond, as for three days in my wine cave just under a cork it evolved with no hints of oxidation at all. There is something to be said about the sturdiness of the best Beaujolais, and of course they are superb “food wines” when young or when mature. This wine at $28.99 net price is still a startling value when you look at what’s selling in other regions for $30. In Beaujolais $30 gets you the best of the best and for $30 in Burgundy or Bordeaux you are still very far away from the tops.

This is a wonderful wine and we only got 15 cases so act quickly to get this gem into the cellar before it is gone.