Fess Parker Winery & Vineyard
Davy Crockett retired to wine country. The actor who wore the coonskin cap planted vines on Foxen Canyon Road in 1989, and the ranch-lodge estate his family built became one of Santa Barbara County’s defining stops.
Fess Parker spent the 1950s and ’60s as Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone on American television, then spent his second act proving the frontiersman instincts were real: in 1989 he and his son Eli began planting on Foxen Canyon Road, intending to sell grapes — and ended up building one of the county’s best-known wine estates instead, still family-run today.
The estate wears its founder’s hospitality: a grand ranch-style lodge of stone and timber, deep verandas over lawns and vines, and Rhône and Burgundian bottlings — Syrah, Viognier, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir — that a Temecula palate will read fluently. It makes a natural double bill with Firestone down the same storied road: the county’s first estate, then its most famous host.
What to expect
| Go for | Hollywood’s frontiersman turned vintner — a family estate with real wines behind the story |
|---|---|
| The house | Founded 1989 by Fess Parker and son Eli on Foxen Canyon Road; family-run since |
| The pour | Rhône and Burgundian leads — Syrah, Viognier, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir — on a grand ranch-lodge veranda |
| From the valley | The Central Coast leg — about three hours northwest, minutes from Firestone on the same trail |
Featured videos
The coonskin cap, the canyon road, and the estate that outgrew the story — Fess Parker country on film.
More of this direction
The other central coast doors on the shortlist — every one worth the drive back to Temecula.