Winemaker Notes
The Clone 115 Pinot Noir has attractive aromas of red cherry, raspberry, red plum, chocolate and clove. The palate has focused flavors of black cherry, black raspberry, grilled sage, plum, vanilla and cinnamon backed up with a streak of minerality and brisk acidity.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2020 Pinot Noir Clone 115, from Ashley's, is bright, punchy and full of character. It offers an intriguing mix of Dijon clone exuberance tempered by the decision to pick early and good a bit of stem inclusion. The 67% new oak is not especially evident. Instead, it is the purity of the dark red/purplish fruit that comes through.
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Wine & Spirits
Fess Parker wines never lack for flavor and aren’t shy in their expression. This one is concentrated and pure in its smoked tobacco and oaked cherry aromas, delivering its flavors like the crack of a whip, with a tension and mouthwatering lift that gives the wine sensational energy, completeness and length. Impressive.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Fermented with 25% stems and aged in 67% new French oak, the 2020 Pinot Noir Clone 115 is a clonal selection and there are just under 300 cases produced. Spiced red and black fruits, loamy earth, and dried herbs and flowers all emerge on the nose, and it's terrific on the palate as well, with a medium-bodied mouthfeel, ripe, sweet tannins, and outstanding length.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dark and somewhat extracted aromas of boysenberry meet with dark herb and sharp spice on the nose of this clonal selection. There's a smoky, oaky streak to the palate that is heavier in style, with ripe flavors of baked berry and dried meat.
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.