When setting out to renovate their family-owned tasting room, siblings Ashley Parker-Snyder and Eli Parker sought a redesign that felt fresh and contemporary—and simultaneously paid homage to the Parker family’s unique history.
Parker-Snyder said the end result is something she hopes her folks, the late Fess and Marcy Parker, would be proud of. Her father, Fess (1924-2010)—famed actor, winemaker, and resort owner—opened the Los Olivos tasting room in the early 1990s.
“The refresh was timely because the space had become a little bit of a ‘faded lady,’” Parker-Synder said. “The finishes are now a little more sleek and modern than those of the original space.”
Parker-Synder and her brother enlisted Oliva Villaluz, of Oliva Villaluz Design, to develop and execute a new look for both the tasting room’s interior and exterior space. Villaluz is a prolific luxury designer based in Los Angeles.
“She [Villaluz] is a lot edgier than we are, but it turns out great when we kind of meet in the middle design-wise,” Parker-Snyder said. “We chose to work with Oliva because we had a good experience with her on the build-out of the Epiphany tasting room space in 2015,” she continued, referencing another Parker property in Los Olivos.
Parker-Snyder added that this year’s tasting room redesign was mainly driven to accommodate “more elevated, seated tastings” at the venue.
The tasting room interior still has a large fireplace as its centerpiece as it did before, but new features—including a communal table and several comfortable seating options—support a lounge-like atmosphere. The wall opposite the fireplace now hosts a massive mural that illustrates the Fess Parker Home Ranch, a 714-acre property that Fess purchased in 1988.
Visitors who wander around the interior are bound to find displayed memorabilia from the family patriarch’s acting heyday, including the guitar he held while auditioning for his role of Davy Crockett in the 1950s Walt Disney TV series, and an original copy of the lyrics to “The Ballad of Davy Crockett,” with personal edits and notes in the margins.
Near the fireplace lounge, there are now two new semi-private areas that cater to guests hoping to reserve a more intimate wine tasting experience. These rooms are enveloped in library collections of Fess Parker wines. Three out of the four walls in each room are covered with row after row of wine bottles.
The tasting room’s pre-existing prep kitchen has also been updated with a wide range of new appliances to allow more flexibility to support a variety of large private parties and other special events.
As for exterior renovations, the outdoor tasting areas have been reconfigured with new tasting bars, shade sails, outdoor furniture, and plants—all added to maximize the usage of the property’s spacious grounds.
The tasting room’s final redesign was revealed at a celebratory reception in early April. Among the artwork on display, there’s one piece that holds a special meaning for the Parker family.
Printed on metal and hung above the fireplace as a tryptic is a photograph, taken by Kodiak Greenwood, of the Parker patriarch’s favorite patch of land on the family’s ranch.
The photo captures “a beautiful old oak tree that is located on the highest hilltop on the ranch,” Parker-Snyder said. “It’s the spot where my parents had many ‘discussions’ about possibly building a house. … It’s also the spot where Eli’s youngest daughter, Olivia, got married in 2018.”
“Fess loved it for the incredible view, but Marcy felt it would be too windy,” Parker-Snyder recalled of her parents’ conversations about the scenic hilltop. “They were both right.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood loves a good hilltop. Send comments to cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 5, 2022.