Beaujolais icon Jean Foillard is among France’s most revered vignerons—a fact that becomes readily apparent when you look at the inventory of Paris’ wine merchants.

While these knowledgeable and well-connected sommeliers pride themselves on offering the latest discoveries, nearly all of them are just as fervent about Foillard’s work over the past four decades.

What the wine merchants and their customers know is that there may be no more consistently fine red wines in all of France than Foillard’s Morgons and Fleurie. Every year, Jean’s masterful touch captures his site’s magical terroirs and the unique character of the vintage with astonishing depth and purity.

In charge of his family’s domaine since 1980, Foillard is a charter member of the quartet of Morgon growers mentored by the great Jules Chauvet, father of the French natural wine movement. Jean’s méthode ancienne means tending his vines organically, a 3-4 week traditional whole-cluster vinification, aging in neutral oak barrels, and does not chaptalize, sulfur or filter his wines.

Even though there are now several growers in the Beaujolais cru villages making wines along similar lines, Foillard’s continue to stand apart. Clearly the strength and delicacy, fine structure, texture and terroir transparency that make his wines so sought after come from something within Foillard himself.

Renegade has been fortunate enough to carry Jean's wines these past ten years; from vintage to vintage we purchase extra bottles and squirrel them away with the purpose of offering his wines in small vertical packs.