Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Ripe cranberries, redcurrants, sappy floral nuances, and underbrush notes all emerge from the 2022 Pinot Noir Ashley's, a classy Sta. Rita Hills effort that picks up more marine and iodine-like nuances with time in the glass. Beautifully balanced, pure, and layered on the palate, it has terrific tannins and nicely integrated acidity.
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Wine Enthusiast
This cooler-climate site presents a dense, savory wine in this vintage. Aromas of truffle, mushroom, loam and forest floor meet violet and boysenberry on the nose. The bold palate mixes blackberry with roasted and dried meat flavors, making for a complex experience.
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Wine Spectator
This tilts darker in shade, with boysenberry and plum notes mixed with lively hints of anise, apple wood and chaparral. The polished, gently toasted finish lets the fruit linger prettily. Drink now through 2031. 1,117 cases made.
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Vinous
The 2022 Pinot Noir Ashley's is laced with dark cherry, plum, mocha, licorice and expresso. Deep and pliant, with gorgeous textural resonance, the 2022 is a delight. It's a classic Fess Parker wine with a ton to offer. There’s a touch of stem influence (25%), but what really stands out is the succulence of the Pommard clone. Bottling on the earlier side helped preserve much of the fruit.
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.