Loubud Sparkling Wines Come to El Paseo

Laura and Paul Hughes Open Tasting Room and Puzzle Playhouse in Downtown Santa Barbara

Paul and Laura Hughes | Credit: Gracie Clark

When Laura Hughes came to Santa Barbara in 2012 to explore her pinot noir fascination by working at Sanford Winery, she was “shocked” that so few people were making sparkling wines from a cool region well-suited for them. A year later, after talking to the few people like Norm Yost of Flying Goat and Don Schroeder of Sea Smoke who were doing so, she spearheaded the launch of Sanford’s bubblies.

The Loubud sparklers | Credit: Matt Kettmann

But it wasn’t until so many friends and colleagues encouraged her to start her own brand that she created Loubud Wines with the 2015 vintage. “Everyone around saw me having my own brand before me,” said Hughes (née Roach), who was raised in Davis, studied wine at UC Davis, and named the brand after a childhood nickname from her dad. “They convinced me I could do it.”

One such voice was Michael Benedict, the late cofounder of the legendary Sanford & Benedict Vineyard. “He told me that one day the Sta. Rita Hills would be known for sparkling wines,” she recalled. “I wanted that to be true.”

She’s been making them ever since, and now features a vineyard-designated blanc de blancs from his namesake property. “This is full circle for me,” she mused, “to be able to put Sanford & Benedict on the label.”

Now, after years of pouring at events, developing an inventory, and building her wine club, she finally has a place to show them off. Laura and her husband, Paul Hughes, opened the Loubud tasting room in a cozy space in El Paseo in December, bringing a dedicated bubbly hub to downtown Santa Barbara’s sipping scene.

“This is perfect. There’s no other sparkling here. This is unique,” said Laura. “We finally have a hub for our club.”

The opening came just a month after the birth of their son, Eliot. “It was a toss-up between whether the baby or tasting room would be first,” laughed Paul during a recent Friday afternoon, as Laura cradled Elliott in her arms nearby.

The tasting room, a former office and storage space, is warm inside, with a record player spinning, and sunny on the patio outside. “We wanted it to be inviting and comfortable, almost like you’re in your own living room, but dressed up,” said Laura. “Kind of like a dinner party.”

Paul’s craft is on the menu too. He hand-cuts wooden puzzles, one of only 30 people in the country and two in California to do so. Using a scroll saw, he meticulously slices up art pieces into hundreds of tiny pieces, including special shapes like bells and instruments reflecting the “whimsy” that was historically part of this trade. Cutting the wood into such small designs is an intricate process, admitted Paul, explaining, “There’s no backspace.”

On the walls are the intact art pieces to serve as keys, such as the Holli Harmon’s 2024 Old Spanish Days Fiesta poster. Guests work on the puzzles together as they sip wines, certainly one of the more interactive activities available in Santa Barbara’s tasting scene. “It keeps you off your phone and it’s team-building,” said Paul, whose pieces are also sold to collectors online, for roughly $1 per included piece.

The couple met on Tinder just before COVID quickly advanced the relationship. Their first date was at Frequency Wines around the corner, where Paul — a Santa Barbara native and tuba player who grew up in the East Mountain Drive scene — met Laura with her friends. “It was a group interview,” said Paul, who wasn’t much of a wine buff then. “I went from drinking Livingston at 7/11 to Schramsberg real quick.”

Schramsberg is where Laura worked during college, followed by stints in Burgundy, South Africa, and Napa before settling in at Sanford. She made her first wines at Cebada Winery near Lompoc, and now makes them at Story of Soil in Buellton.

Paul and Laura Hughes with their son Elliott and dog Taco in the new Loubud tasting room in El Paseo. | Credit: Gracie Clark

The tasting-room wine lineup features four wines, but there’s almost always a fifth. “We start young and fun and then go serious and sophisticated,” explained Laura, who leads with her rosé before delving into older vintages that she’s earmarked as special over the years. “I can usually tell when something is going to be great so I’ll hold onto those.” She also just bottled her first sauvignon blanc from Happy Canyon and is slowly integrating that into the mix as well.

She’s not planning to add any pinots or red wines to the lineup. “I want to stay focused,” she said. “Traditional-method sparkling wine is what I want to stay true to, with Santa Barbara County fruit and Sta. Rita Hills if I can afford it.”

Her goal is to create bubblies that show “a beautiful richness without being too heavy.” She’s succeeding, even though sparkling wines require much more time and effort than still wines to produce. “It’s a big investment and it’s risky,” she said. “But it’s worth it.”

Loubud Wines, 20 El Paseo; (805) 500-8533; loubudwines.com