Winemaker Notes
The Pommard Clone is a darker, more brooding example of Pinot Noir. You will find cherry, forest floor, floral and even slightly smokey notes on the nose. The palate delivers nice structure with cherry, strawberry, cinnamon and dried herb flavors.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Redcurrants, cranberries, spring flowers, and sappy herb and minty notes all emerge from the 2022 Pinot Noir Pommard Clone, a prettier, more feminine styled, beautifully balanced Pinot Noir that shines for its complex, pure aromas and flavors as well as its balance.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dark plum aromas are dusted in mulling spices on the nose of this clonal expression. There’s a blast of acidity at the tip of the sip, which unfurls through more plum and peppery, piquant spices and zings into the finish.
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Vinous
The 2022 Pinot Noir Pommard Clone is succulent, racy and quite giving—In other words, everything it should be. Bright red cherry, plum, mocha, spice and lavender are nicely pushed forward. Soft contours wrap it all together. This racy Pinot has a ton to offer.
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Wine Spectator
Offers a fresh, slightly high-pitched core of red tea, raspberry and damson plum notes, all woven together and carried by the silky but persistent structure. Shows a kiss of toast on the back end. Drink now through 2030.
Established in 1989, Fess Parker Winery is a multi-generational family owned and operated winery that has a rich heritage in Santa Barbara County. Fess Parker produces premium, small-lot, vineyard designated Burgundian varietals from the Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley as well as Rhône varietals from their organically farmed, SIP Certified estate vineyard.
Outstanding fruit sources, including some of the finest vineyards in the county, coupled with skilled winemaking, led by Blair Fox, form the foundation for the winery’s success. Now three generations in, the Fess Parker Family is proud to carry on Fess’s legacy of wine heritage and hospitality in Santa Barbara.
Fess Parker Winery was proud to be named a Top 100 Winery in the World by Wine & Spirits Magazine in both 2022 and 2023.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A superior source of California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills is the coolest, westernmost sub-region of the larger Santa Ynez Valley appellation within Santa Barbara County. This relatively new AVA is unquestionably one to keep an eye on.
The climate of Sta. Rita Hills is a natural match for Chardonnay and Pinot noir, thanks to the crisp ocean breezes and well-drained, limestone-rich calcareous soil. Here, grapes ripen just enough, while retaining brisk acidity and harmonious balance.