Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Intensely dark and focused, this bottling from Santa Barbara County's historic vineyard is unrivaled in intensity, showing mulberry, elderberry, crushed rock, roast beef and a hint of sagebrush. Full but not sweet boysenberry flavors come through on the palate, balanced by dusty earth, wet stone and more chaparral spice notes.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Pinot Noir Sanford & Benedict Vineyard shines in the lineup and has a pretty, fresh style in its strawberry, mint and floral aromatics. These give way to a fresh, elegant, stylish Pinot Noir that has a Burgundian-like purity and focus. It should keep for a decade.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple colored, the 2015 Sanford & Benedict Vineyard Pinot Noir offers up notions of crushed black raspberries and black cherries with touches of anise, lavender and charcoal. Medium-bodied and elegantly played in the mouth, the tightly knit fruit is well-supported by grainy tannins and just enough freshness, finishing long and earthy.
Rating: 92+
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.