Bubbles and puzzles. That is the unlikely, completely charming idea at the heart of Loubud, a sparkling wine house tucked into the El Paseo courtyard in downtown Santa Barbara, where a glass of traditional method sparkling arrives alongside a hand carved wooden puzzle and, on Sundays, a tail wag from a dog named Taco.

Laura Hughes and the long road to bubbles

Loubud was founded in 2015 by Laura Hughes, who named it for Loubudillia, the nickname she carried as a child, and that personal touch runs through every bottle. Hughes is no hobbyist. She holds a degree in Viticulture and Enology from UC Davis and has made wine around the world, in Burgundy, in Tasmania, in Napa, and in South Africa, before planting her flag in the Sta. Rita Hills where her winemaking roots run deepest.

She specializes in something genuinely hard to do well, small production sparkling wine made in the traditional method, the same labor intensive process behind Champagne, where the second fermentation happens inside the bottle. In 2023 her husband Paul joined the adventure, bringing his hand carved wooden puzzles and the spark for bubbles and puzzles, the playful ritual that now defines a visit.

Why the Sta. Rita Hills makes great bubbles

Great sparkling wine needs grapes with high natural acidity, picked early, before the sun rounds them out. Few places in California deliver that better than the Sta. Rita Hills, where Pacific fog and cold marine wind funnel through the only east to west mountain gap on the coast, holding the fruit bright and taut deep into the season. Cool nights preserve the racy acidity that gives sparkling its lift and its long life.

Working in the traditional method, Hughes lets that acidity do its work, building wines with fine, persistent bubbles and the toasty, bready complexity that comes from time on the lees. These are sparkling wines with a sense of place, not anonymous fizz, and they reward slow sipping as much as celebration.

A tasting room built for fun

The Loubud tasting room sits at 20 El Paseo, in the heart of the historic Presidio Neighborhood, inside the same Spanish Colonial courtyard off State Street that has anchored downtown Santa Barbara for a century. It is open Thursday through Sunday, family friendly, pet friendly, and relaxed about outside food, so you can build a whole afternoon around it.

The bubbles and puzzles concept is exactly what it sounds like. You taste through the sparkling lineup while working a hand carved wooden puzzle at your table, an antidote to the rushed, reverent tasting room. It is social, it is a little nerdy, and it is a lot of fun, which is rather the point of sparkling wine in the first place.

What to pour it with

Traditional method sparkling is one of the most food friendly wines there is, and the reason is physics. The high acidity and scrubbing bubbles cut straight through fat and salt, resetting your palate between bites, which is why sparkling and fried food is a match made in heaven rather than a gimmick. Pour Loubud with fried chicken, salty popcorn, potato chips, or tempura and watch both the wine and the food get better.

It is equally at home with oysters and shellfish, where the saline snap of the wine meets the brine of the sea, and with creamy, soft cheeses like Brie, where the bubbles lift the richness off your tongue. For a celebration plate, think caviar or smoked salmon on a blini, a congruent luxury pairing that has worked for a hundred years and is not about to stop.

Loubud Wines: common questions