Long ago but not far far away I met Fess – in a ditch beside a once rural road in Santa Clara, CA. No, he didn’t drive into the ditch, he stepped into it and sat down to chat with my PG&E line crew as we had lunch. Fess explained that he was just at a nearby old farmhouse and negotiating with a woman there for her farmland. He explained his vision for an amusement park. Years later my family construction company, Preston Pipelines, was digging ditches to lay storm, sewer, and water pipe for Marriott’s Great America amusement park. Fess brought in Marriott as a partner and his vision rose up majestically from that woman’s farm.

Fess died recently and I never met him again after that lunch in a ditch. However, I have found memories of a quality experience. He was at the time a well known star from his TV series about Daniel Boone but for whatever reason he shared our lunches in that ditch and was very sincere and nice.

Fess Parker Winery on the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail

He went on to found hotels, other parks, and a winery near Los Olivos on the Foxen Canyon Wine Trail in Santa Barbara County. The winery is surrounded by large oaks in a narrow valley and includes very nice landscaping for picnicking. It was featured in the famous wine movie “Sideways”; the place where Miles drank from the dump bucket.

Inside the tasting room are various artifacts from his acting days along with touristy stuff such as coonskin hats for sale. The staff has always been as hospitable as Fess when we visit and the wines are first rate.

Two bottles of Fess Park Chardonnay arrived in the mail recently. That happens when you have a major wine site or blog. One was their 2009 Santa Barbara County Chard and the other was from the same year but the grapes where from the Santa Rita Hills region of this county. Katya and I LOVE horizontal and vertical tastings so it was a treat to open both bottles on a warm day and sample them with seafood on our patio.

The Santa Rita Hills version is an aromatic medium body wine with a lasting finish. Nice subtle oak with a soft little buttery finish. Excellent.

The Santa Barbara County version from grapes from somewhere else in the county, that info wasn’t provided or on the Website, is lighter body than the Santa Rita Hills Chard, softer, and less aromatic and oak. Excellent wine also when paired with seafood.

We leaned toward preferring the Santa Rita Hills Chard because we like a little more fruit and stronger bouquet, heavier body, and longer finishes.

The next time you happen to be hanging around Los Olivos pack a picnic lunch and head out the Foxen Canyon Road for Fess Parker Winery.

- jim

We wandered into the small town of Orcutt south of Santa Maria, Santa Barbara County, to visit and map Addamo and CORE tasting rooms. Addamo was the last tasting room of the day so we followed our ancient tradition and hung around to taste some wines. We rarely taste during our winery mapping and data gathering missions for WineQuesters.com because, well, we need to get work done.

The tasting room is inside a nice Italianesque restaurant that serves gourmet meals. We headed straight past the tables to the tasting bar, anxious to finally taste wines after some 25 winery visits, and was graciously greeted by Liz Addamo, the owner – chef. She’s FUN to hang out with, interesting, and we had one of those unforgettable times in a tasting room way off the beaten track.

We very much enjoyed all her wines but I’ll comment on two. The 07 Chard is a slightly oaky soft Chard that we love. We paired it nicely with fresh seafood back home. The 06 Syrah had the full Syrah nose, medium body, and a long enjoyable finish. As usual with my posts I don’t mention berry flavors and such because amazingly the wines taste for you and your circumstances a little different than we experienced in our circumstances.

We’ll definitely detour off 101 to visit Liz again and next time we’ll try her cooking.

- jim

We are in Paso Robles finishing up a 3 day winery tasting room mapping trip here and in Santa Barbara County. We will soon add 48 winery profiles for Paso and 34 for Santa Barbara County. Most are new or recently open to the public on a regular basis – the criteria for WineQuesters.com.

We met many growers who are now making their own wine and opening tasting rooms. We are constantly amazed how this many tasting rooms can open in such a deep recession. We’ve deleted only five in the past year that have gone out of business. This is a crazy industry!

Jim