It was around 4:00 pm. We’d been walking around the streets of Santa Barbara pretty much all day, tasting wine as we went. We weren’t driving and we could walk back to our hotel, so we could try one more tasting room if we wanted to. Still, at that time, did we really want to? Well, we did and we’re certainly glad about that.
The tasting room at Longoria on State in Santa Barbara.
We stepped into Longoria on State, which is the only tasting room actually on Santa Barbara’s main drag. We were quite surprised at what we saw. It didn’t look like a typical tasting room but more like an upscale cocktail lounge. There were long banquettes with plush pillows, comfortable chairs and trendy tables. It was a relatively dark room, with track lighting and a huge skylight to brighten it up. The bar was long, tiled and served only wine.
The wines all come from the Longoria winery. Frankly we hadn’t heard about Longoria before tasting there, but we learned that it was founded by Rick and Donna Longoria in Santa Barbara County in 1982. Being among the pioneers of Central Coast winemaking, the Longorias influenced many other winemakers in the area. They sold their winery in 2022 and the new owners, the Christian family, are responsible for the snazzy digs on State Street. (There is another tasting room in Lompoc that we have not visited.)
As is often the case in California, Longoria makes a wide variety of wines. There are several whites, a rosé, some Spanish-style reds and a few blends. But the core of Longoria’s list is Pinot Noir, which is what we enjoyed the most. All of them are from the Santa Rita Hills, which by itself is good indicator of the quality of the terroir. For the most part, all the Pinot Noirs seemed rather elegant to us, with a range of fruitiness and depth among them.
To be fair, the wines we tasted were bottled prior to the sale of the winery, so there may be some changes coming. We hope not, because we really liked what we tried.
The tasting room on State Street is relatively new, not there on our previous visits to Santa Barbara. As mentioned, we arrived at the end of the afternoon; we walked right in and were served. (The Longoria web site does ask for reservations, but as in much of California they’re not always needed.) We have a hunch that later in the day the room may be more crowded. Longoria on State is open until 8:00 most nights and until 9:00 on Saturdays, so that night club vibe might draw more patrons at later hours.
One of our greatest pleasures in wine tasting is discovering fine wines in unexpected places. In that regard, Longoria on State meets both criteria. We would certainly urge anyone who would like to explore Central Coast wines while in Santa Barbara to include Longoria on their itinerary.