The
winemaking team at the sprawling winery in the heart of the Santa Ynez Valley
sent out a notice last week highlighting “Wines for the Holiday Table.” They
hand-picked three wines that they feel “could help create a fun-filled
holiday,” according to a news release, including their 2016 Fesstivity Brut Cuveé,
a bright and bouncy sparkling wine made from a blend of pinot noir and
chardonnay grapes, and their crisp and lively 2017 Ashley’s Chardonnay. The
Fess Parker 2017 Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir rounds out the trio, a wine I
enjoyed with dinner a few nights ago and loved: it’s bouncy but elegant, with
wonderful flavors of red berries and dark cherries. Its fruit source – various
vineyards in the celebrated Sta. Rita Hills growing region between Buellton and
Lompoc, including the famous Sanford & Benedict Vineyard -- speaks to its pedigree. At $30, this is an
awesome pinot noir value.
A lot of us
may not be ready to put together a Christmas wine shopping list just yet. But
if you are, you won’t go wrong by stuffing your stocking with any of these
wines. If nothing else, kudos to the Parker marketing team for getting us to
think about Christmas in the middle of July!
This was a
fresh reminder, of course, that Fess Parker Winery is in the throes of a major
milestone this year: its 30th anniversary. In a young wine region
like Santa Barbara – a viticultural area that began to show promise on a world
scale only in the mid- to late 1970s – three successful decades is a big deal.
It makes you a pioneer, of sorts. And there’s no denying the Parkers’ special
story, one defined by myriad business successes and one fueled by a
multigenerational vision.
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| Fess Parker at Rodney's Vineyard (photo by Claude Ising, 2007) |
“The
original motivation for buying the ranch was the fact it was a gorgeous piece
of property, and its proximity to Santa Barbara,” Ashley Parker-Snider told me
recently. She was speaking about late 1987, when her dad, Disney TV Icon Fess
Parker, bought a 714-acre estate along Foxen Canyon Road. The Texas native had
already become a household name, thanks to his uber-successful portrayals in
1950s and 1960s Hollywood of American heroes Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone.
Various projects for Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros. had made Mr. Parker one
of Hollywood’s original celebrities by the time he moved his family to Hope
Ranch in the late 70s. He’d purchase a 23-acre resort along Cabrillo Blvd. in
1986 – it’s the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort today, owned 50-50
between the Parker family and Hilton Hotels, which manages it – and the Santa
Ynez Valley ranch the following year.
Winemaking
from grapes off the estate was a fun family experiment at first, a new frontier.
“It started out very organically,” Ashley recalls, “and then it definitely
picked up steam.” The first decade would be defined by plenty of experimentation,
several hits and several misses. The wine program would come into focus and be
far more refined by the year 2000, when E&J Gallo alum Tim Snider, now
company president and Ashley’s husband, and winemaker Blair Fox had joined the
team. Ashley and brother Eli took on relevant roles from the get-go – they’ve
always been hands-on with winemaking, vineyard sourcing and marketing. And
their own children’s involvement makes the wide range of Fess Parker project –
known collectively at FESPAR -- a solid three-generation enterprise. Today,
that’s a powerhouse project that includes hotels in Santa Barbara and the Santa
Ynez Valley, the celebrated Bear & Star Restaurant in Los Olivos and a
thriving ranch and cattle business.
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| The Parkers |
The winery
produces close to 70,000 cases a year through a portfolio of several labels,
including the eponymous Fess Parker, the Epiphany line of Rhone wines, the
Addendum series of Napa-based cabernet sauvignons and the Fesstivity bubblies.
The accolades that the Parker wines earn – 90+ point reviews from all the top
wine publications and rave reviews from consumers near and far – make their
impact on the world’s growing appreciation of Santa Barbara County wines
undeniable. And that’s 30 years well spent, and spent well.
August
presents three ways to join the Fess Parker Winery pearl anniversary
celebration: the weekend of August 16th and 17th includes
a Celebration of Rodney’s Vineyard ($100), a 30th Anniversary
Retrospective Tasting ($80) and a Movie Night ($20) screening of Davy Crockett
and the River Pirates, starring Fess Parker, with proceeds benefitting the Old
Yeller Ranch Rescue for dogs. All events take place at the Santa Ynez Valley
ranch. For tickets, visit fessparker.com/events.
Cheers!
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