The worldwide excitement over Beaujolais’ traditional renaissance has brought unprecedented attention to what insiders have long known: in the right hands, and from the right terroirs, Beaujolais produces some of France’s most compelling red wines.
 
And none are more compelling than the Morgon cuvées of Lapierre and Foillard. The astonishing purity with which they capture the village’s unique terroir has made both domaines revered worldwide among those who prize wines that express the soul of their region, village and vineyard.
 
And the ultimate Lapierre and Foillard experiences are to be found in the microscopic number of 3-liter jeroboams that each produces in any given vintage. As magical as both grower’s wines are at full maturity, their haunting perfume and silky texture will be exponentially greater in jeroboam, thanks to their much slower evolution.
 
Unfortunately, most of these jeroboams are consumed at the annual Lapierre family pig roast—attended by a who’s who of French vin naturel—and at such SRO Paris wine bars as L’Avant Comptoir. As a consequence, Lapierre and Foillard jeros are exceedingly rare.
 
Yet, thanks to some well-connected friends, we can offer the following at prices you’re unlikely to see again:
 The Flagship 2013 Lapierre Morgon Tradition
The Rarely Seen 2014 Cuvée Marcel Lapierre MMXIV
The Brilliant 2016 Foillard Morgon Côte du Py

 
Back Story on Lapierre
Ever since the late Marcel Lapierre adopted Jules Chauvet’s méthode ancienne nearly forty years ago, the domaine’s Morgon Tradition has been the definitive expression of the village’s singular greatness: elegantly perfumed and silky-textured, yet with the firm structure for long aging.
 
And since Marcel’s passing in 2010, his children Mathieu and Camille have kept the domaine at Beaujolais’ summit. An assemblage from old-vine parcels (averaging 60 years old) from throughout the village, the 2013 Morgon Tradition is an astonishingly pure rendering of Morgon’s refinement and richness, concentrated by this fine, tiny-berried vintage.
 
But the Lapierres have been Morgon growers for a long time, and a small part of the domaine boasts century-old vines from which Mathieu and Camille make a grande cuvée, the coveted Cuvée Marcel Lapierre. According to Josh Raynolds, this majestic Morgon is made with “basically the same philosophy behind Chave’s Ermitage Cuvée Cathelin.”
 
Made only in great vintages, Cuvée Marcel Lapierre is a selection from the domaine’s best situated, oldest Morgon vines. The 2014 Lapierre Cuvée Marcel Lapierre MMXIV is the essence of its great terroirs seen through the lens of this vibrant, mineral-driven year.
 
Jean Foillard
While Cuvée Marcel Lapierre is only rarely made, Jean Foillard’s Côte du Py is prized year after year as one of the most consistently fine red wines in all of France. Foillard has been in charge of his family’s domaine since 1980, and he too has long followed Chauvet’s teachings.
 
For his signature wine, Morgon Côte du Py, Foillard applies his Chauvet-inspired methods to fruit from the Côte's famed roches pourries—the “rotten rock” of decomposed granite and schist that gives this site’s wines their unique character.

In its perfect balance of sheer deliciousness and serious, structured complexity, the 2016 Foillard Morgon Côte du Py is a model of grape variety matched to terroir in a classic vintage. It is an exceptionally complete expression of Beaujolais.
 
It bears repeating that the three jeros in this offer are incredibly rare.