Fess Parker, the man idolized by every kid in the 1950's, turns 82 today. The star of the Walt Disney television show and movie, Davy Crockett, entered American living rooms through the glare of the screen, solidifying him as one of the first icons in television history. One of his original coonskin caps now resides in the nation's capital at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Fess Parker's 1960's television series Daniel Boone made him synonymous with Western heroes. His birthday happens to fall at a time of many celebrations in the Parker family.
On August 25, TV Land commences a Daniel Boone marathon -- the second series the actor starred in -- showing re-runs of the show for 48 hours straight. If ratings are impressive, TV Land will enter a two-year contract for syndication rights. Shortly thereafter, in September comes the release of the Daniel Boone series DVD. Daughter Ashley Parker comments, "I am looking forward to seeing the shows again. I spent a lot of time on the set as a kid and I'm told I turned out OK. Hopefully the opportunity to see such a wholesome show will have the same effect on my eight-year-old son... Of course his Grandpa is already a role model...but watching him in this role should help to drive some of those important values home."
The summer of 2006 has proven to be a successful time as harvest approaches for Fess Parker and his family. On top of Fess' continued television stardom over 50 years later, he and his family have welcomed several impressive accolades on behalf of their winery and vineyard in Santa Barbara County, which was established in 1989 by Fess and his son Eli. Originally intending to sell their fruit to local producers, the Fess Parker Winery subsequently expanded from its initial 5-1/2-acre home property to 600 acres in several key vineyards throughout the Santa Barbara County area including Santa Rita Hills, and Santa Ynez Valley where their home and Camp 4 vineyards are located. These prestigious awards garnered by the Parkers adequately acknowledge the passion and hard work of a tight-knit family run winery. The winery is run by Fess Parker's son, Eli Parker as President, Director of Winery and Vineyard Operations, daughter Ashley Parker Snider as VP of Marketing and Public Relations, and son-in-law Tim Snider who is the winery's General Manager and Vice President of Sales and Marketing. www.fessparker.com
At the 2006 San Francisco International Wine Competition held in June, forty-two wines out of the over three thousand made it to the sweepstakes and three of those were wines from Fess Parker Winery and Epiphany Cellars, both owned by the Fess Parker Family. The Fess Parker 2003 Syrah from Rodney's Vineyard won Best Syrah, while Epiphany Cellars 2005 Grenache Blanc, Camp 4 Vineyard won Best of Show-White Wine and the 2003 Epiphany Cellars Revelation won Double Gold, making it all the way to sweepstakes for the Rhone Blend category. As a result of these achievements, Eli Parker was distinguished as Andre Tchelistcheff Winemaker of the Year.
