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. Fess Parker's clonal selection Pinot Noirs are made with the intent of isolating some of the very best individual lots in their cellar and capturing the nuances that each specific clone offers. This has remained a very small project - 14 barrels of wine - and delivers some of their finest expressions of Pinot Noir.
Blend: 100% Pinot Noir
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lots of red and black fruits and notes of leather emerge from the 2021 Pinot Noir Clone 115, which is medium to full-bodied and has a good sense of elegance, as well as some classic Sta. Rita Hills salty, almost bloody and iron-like characteristics on the palate and finish. Coming from a single block in Ashley’s Vineyard and aged 15 months in 63% new French oak, it will evolve for 7-8+ years with ease.
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Wine Enthusiast
Crystallized black-cherry aromas meet with red and black licorice on the clean nose of this bottling. There’s a formidable texture to the palate, where fresh red-fruit flavors hang out with mineral touches of crushed granite.
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Wine Spectator
Lively, offering a bramble-laced core of raspberry and boysenberry compote notes backed by lively apple wood and anise hints, with the fruit packing a nice finishing kick. A crowd-pleaser.
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.