Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard has expressive notes of ripe apricots, pink grapefruit and honeyed toast with touches of roasted almonds, orange blossoms and ginger. Medium-bodied, with a lovely creaminess to the texture, it delivers mouthfilling stone fruit and citrus layers with a lively backbone to lift the long, savory finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
This bottling from the historic vineyard boasts a balanced, smoky quality on the nose that pairs well with its sharper white flower and salted nut aromas. Its acidity and tongue-tingling texture on the palate is addictive, revealing ripe Gala apple flavors backed by lemon juice, sea salt, oak and wet stone notes.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Chardonnay Bien Nacido Vineyard is a classic wine from this estate, as well as from the vineyard. Ripe, rounded, pure and pleasure-bent, with lots of apple, spice and hints of pineapple aromas and flavors, it's already hard to resist. This cuvée spent 9 months in 40% new French oak.
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Wine Spectator
Well-structured, with notes of dried savory herbs to the rich and intensely spicy flavors of baked apple, pear tart and dried apricot. Coconut cream accents show on the luscious finish. Drink now through 2021.
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.
With a dry and mild climate cooled significantly by moist ocean fog and breezes, Santa Barbara County is a grape-grower’s dream. Part of the larger Central Coast appellation, Santa Barbara is home to Santa Maria Valley and Santa Ynez Valley. The conditions here provide an opportunity for nearly effortless production of high-quality cool-climate Central Coast wines. This is also the site of the 2004 film Sideways, which caused Pinot Noir’s popularity to skyrocket and brought new acclaim to the region.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the stars of Santa Barbara, producing wines marked by racy acidity. Crisp Sauvignon Blanc and savory Syrah are also important. The region is home to many young and enthusiastic winemakers eager to experiment with less common varieties including Chenin Blanc, Grüner Veltliner, Trousseau Gris, Gamay and Cabernet Franc, making it an exciting area to watch.