Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Winemaker Blair Fox loves this single-clone bottling, and for good reason. It's intensely dark in color but not overextracted, with soil, eucalyptus, black plum and baking spice aromas. Rounded strawberry and raspberry fruit shows on the medium-bodied palate, with star anise and white pepper accents.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From a single clone planted in the Rancho Las Hermanas Vineyard in the Sta. Rite Hills, the 2014 Pinot Noir Clone 115 has lots of sweet oak in its black raspberry, cassis, spice and licorice-scented bouquet. This gives way to a medium plus bodied Pinot Noir that has terrific purity, notable freshness and a great finish. Like the other releases here, it is a ripe, classic Cali Pinot to drink over the coming 4-5 years.
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.