Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming all from a single vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills, the 2017 Chardonnay Ashley's was brought up in 36% new French oak. It offers a classic, pure array of white currants, orchard fruits, white flowers, toasted bread, and just a hint of salted caramel. Medium-bodied, pure, elegant, and seamless, it's another soft, silky, beautifully balanced white from this team that's ideal for drinking over the coming 4-5 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
Tangy lime and grapefruit aromas cut through the prominent sense of oak on the nose of this bottling. The palate is extremely crisp, framed by laser-sharp acidity and tense tannins, offering flavors of lemon peel, kumquat and more citrus.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Fess Parker Ashley's Chardonnay is bright, delicious, and lasting on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine brings aromas and flavors of core fruit, oak, and minerality to the fore. Pair it with grilled lobster in a creamy, wine reduction herb sauce. (Tasted: April 14, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Spectator
Dried mint and tarragon notes accent the fresh-cut green apple and Asian pear flavors. The spicy finish features toasty and pastry details.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Shy on the nose with toast and smoke to begin, the 2017 Chardonnay Ashley's Vineyard slowly opens to lemon pith, Red Delicious apple, dried hay and white apricot. It's citrusy and minerally in the mouth and light to medium-bodied, with juicy acidity and a textured finish.
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.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
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.