Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A brilliant effort, the 2006 Syrah Rodney's Vineyard reveals notes of lavender, charcoal, truffles, creme de cassis, blackberries, and smoky oak. This full-bodied, multilayered, textured, voluptuous Syrah possesses beautiful density, sweet, silky tannins, and stunning concentration as well as purity. It should drink well for 7-8 years
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Wine Enthusiast
The sheer deliciousness gives this wine its high score. It's like a decadent pastry dessert, with dark chocolate truffle, grilled black cherry, cassis, anise and sandalwood flavors sprinkled with cinnamon and pepper. But it's fully dry. The high alcohol and softness suggest drinking now.
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Wine Spectator
Fleshy plum and cherry jam flavors are wrapped in firm tannins in this full-bodied effort, picking up mineral and tobacco notes on the long, fleshy finish. Drink now through 2011.
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.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
A lesser-known but elite AVA within the larger Santa Barbara district, the Santa Maria Valley AVA runs precisely west to east starting near the coast. The valley funnels cool, Pacific Ocean air to the vineyards more inland, allowing grapes a longer hang time to ripen evenly and achieve their full potential by harvest time. Combined with minimal rainfall, consistent warm sunshine, and well-drained soils, it is an ideal environment for grape growing.
Many of the wineries here are small and highly respected, having established a reputation in the 1970s and 80s for producing excellent Central Coast wines like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. More recently, Syrah has also proven quite successful in the region. Many vineyards are owned by growers who sell their grapes to other wineries, so it is common to see the same vineyard name on bottlings from different wineries. Bien Nacido Vineyard is perhaps the best-known and most prestigious.