LaBarge Winery Employs Meticulous Control  

There’s bound to be a bit of healthy suspicion when a brand-new winery comes out of the gates charging $60 for a bottle of a rarely planted white wine grape from Spain called albariño, not to mention $100 for pinot noir and cool-climate expressions of syrah and grenache. But the reasons why reveal themselves within seconds of walking into LaBarge Winery, where meticulous control over grape-growing, winemaking, and even sales and marketing meet with the dedication to a classical elegance that only old money can achieve.

Located on the westernmost flank of the Sta. Rita Hills, atop a bend in Sweeney Canyon Road, with views of Lompoc, the Santa Ynez River, and the waves of Surf Beach in the deep distance, LaBarge’s facility was one of the last projects designed by renowned Santa Barbara architect Barry Berkus, whose reverence to Spanish Colonial Revival is only upstaged by his subtle mastery of modern touches. Laid out on a cross of sorts that adheres to the four cardinal directions, the main room features a glass floor with views into the barrel room below and a large glass window on the adjacent wall, looking directly into the active winery itself.

“The idea was to stand here and see the whole process,” said proprietor Pierre LaBarge IV, 35 years old, a scion of the St. Louis family that made fortunes in defense contracting and steel pipe sales. “It’s a very private facility,” he replies when I ask if he ever plans to open his masterpiece to the public. “We feel like it’s our house.”