Winemaker Notes
Aromas and flavors of Bing cherry, red currant, black plum, raspberry, baker's chocolate, vanilla, cola, baking spices, grilled sage, nutmeg, forest floor, and cigar box.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Pinot Noir Older Barrels comes from the Rancho Las Hermana Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills and is a barrel selection from neutral oak. It saw 20-25% stems. It’s one of the more Burgundian styled wines in the lineup and has ample red and black fruits as well as forest floor, earth, and spice-like aromas and flavors. Nicely textured and medium-bodied on the palate, with ripe tannins, it’s another unquestionably outstanding Pinot Noir from this estate.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Black plum, mulberry, wood-spice and cola aromas show on the nose of this bottling. It's hefty on the palate, where dark berry, mushroom, black tea and woody flavors converge in harmonious ways.
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.