Winemaker Notes
Aromas of red cherry, raspberry, red plum, cola, baking spices, forest floor, cigar box, and vanilla. Flavors of Bing cherry, red currant, black plum, baker's chocolate, vanilla, nutmeg and grilled sage.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Pinot Noir Older Barrel comes all from the Ashley’s Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills and spent 16 months in 4-year-old barrels. This deep ruby-colored effort gives up a ripe, smoky bouquet of red and black fruits, scorched earth, forest floor, and assorted spices. It's a deep, rich, powerful Pinot Noir that fills the mouth with fruit. Drink it over the coming decade.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Matured in neutral wood, the 2016 Pinot Noir Older Barrels derives from Ashley's Vineyard and offers up notes of candied peel, plums, cinnamon and sweet red berries. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, supple and silky, with an expansive attack, excellent mid-palate depth and a long, sapid finish. More understated and savory in profile than the other vineyard-designate Pinot Noir bottlings, this was also one of my favorites.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Dark aromas of black cherry, wet slate, loam and strong baking spice show on the nose of this bottling, which comes from some of the more neutral barrels in the winery. It's crisp and juicy on the palate, with rich flavors of wild cherry and cola, all cut by strong acidity.
-
Wine & Spirits
This wine captures the warm/cool contrast of the Santa Rita Hills in its brisk and zesty fruit, pink in the middle, red in the end, a bright flavor set against the brash, almost boozy alcohol and smoky ripeness. It comes together in a clean finish, and the elements begin to knit as the wine takes on air. Decant it for grilled salmon.
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.