Wine 101: Longoria is worth a day trip to Los Olivos

A few weeks ago, I ventured up to Los Olivos to meet with winemaker Rick Longoria, owner of Longoria Wines. I was introduced to Longoria Wines a few years ago, and my wife and I both enjoy them very much.

I was excited to meet Longoria, especially after I read about his career and the winery on its Web site. Once there, we tasted a few wines and talked about his long history of winemaking.

When Longoria was young, he was looking for a career in which he would be happy. He heard of a job opening at a local winery and thought he would give it a try.

In 1974, he started as a “cellar rat” for California’s first established winery, Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma County, doing anything and everything that needed to be done.

After two weeks, he knew this was the career for him. What helped him decide was his good fortune to meet and learn his trade from Andre Tchelistcheff, known as the dean of American winemakers. Tchelistcheff was consulting at the vineyard. They became good friends and stayed in touch until Tchelistcheff died in 1994.

Longoria first came to the Santa Ynez area in 1976 to work for Firestone Vineyards. He stayed until 1978, when he was lured back to Napa Valley to work at Chappellet Winery.

He missed Santa Ynez and let it be known he would like to come back. He heard about a job opening at J. Carey Cellars and moved his family down to the Santa Ynez area for good. While at J. Carey, he took on the winemaking responsibilities at Ranch Sisquoc. He moved on to Gainey Vineyards as winemaker from 1985 to 1997. He left there to start his own winery.

Today Longoria Wines produces wine in small quantities ranging from 50 to 500 cases, with a total production of 3,500 cases.

He produces chardonnay, pinot noir, Bordeaux blends, grenache, syrah, albarino, tempranillo and pinot grigio.

He sources his grapes from vineyards in and around Santa Ynez. He owns his own vineyard in Santa Ynez, which he named Fe Ciega, translated Blind Faith. This is where his outstanding Fe Ciega pinot noir comes from.

In our talk, he told me that from this vineyard you can see famous vineyards such as Seasmoke, Sanford and Benedict, as well as La Encatada. After having the Longoria Fe Ciega pinot noir, I can only say that the winemakers at those other spots should be saying they can see Fe Ciega from their vineyards.

If you are headed up to the Santa Ynez area, you need to make a stop in Los Olivos and visit Longoria Wines’ tasting room. You will not be disappointed.