'Our Valley oak' BY WENDY THIES SELL June 13, 2013 You can see, there are a lot of Valley oak trees in the vineyard,” Chumash winemaker Tara Gomez pointed out as we walked through the in Santa Ynez on a warm tribe’s Camp 4 Vineyard summer morning last August. The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians was inspired by the historic trees when naming its new wine label: Kitá Wines. Kitá (kee-ta) Valley in the native language. means “our oak” tribe’s in our own language and that “We wanted to use something had meaning to the said Chumash Vice Chairman whole tribe,” Richard Gomez, father of the winemaker, Tara. tribe’s the Samala language, there are a lot of words that have “In to beautiful meanings but they’re real hard pronounce,” he said. ended up agreeing on Kitá, and that was real simple to “We pronounce.” In May, they completed moving into their new winery in Lompoc, bottled and released their first wines, and then launched two wine clubs and the winery’s website: kitawines.com. I attended the Kitá Wines launch party at the winery, tasted the whole line up of wines, and watched as Tara received a proclamation from the California State Legislature recognizing the Chumash as first Native American tribe to have a “the Native American winemaker, vineyard, and winemaking operations run solely by tribal people.” Tara has worked tirelessly on this project; it’s not uncommon for her to put in 80-hour weeks. in the making, and to finally get to “It’s been like three years this point, just,ah, a sigh of Tara said with a broad it’s relief,” smile, clearly overjoyed with the positive response. of her father added. “I’m extremely proud her,” Science-minded Gomez graduated from St. Joseph High School in Santa Maria, attended Allan Hancock College, and earned an enology degree from Fresno State in 1998. The Chumash awarded Tara a tribal scholarship to help her pay for college. through the financial support of the she said. “I got my education tribe,”
'Our Valley oak' BY WENDY THIES SELL June 13, 2013 You can see, there are a lot of Valley oak trees in the vineyard,” Chumash winemaker Tara Gomez pointed out as we walked through the tribe’s Camp 4 Vineyard in Santa Ynez on a warm summer morning last August. The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians was inspired by the historic trees when naming its new wine label: Kitá Wines. Kitá (kee-ta) means “our Valley oak” in the tribe’s native language. “We wanted to use something in our own language and that had meaning to the whole tribe,” said Chumash Vice Chairman Richard Gomez, father of the tribe’s winemaker, Tara. “In the Samala language, there are a lot of words that have beautiful meanings but they’re real hard to pronounce,” he said. “We ended up agreeing on Kitá, and that was real simple to pronounce.” In May, they completed moving into their new winery in Lompoc, bottled and released their first wines, and then launched two wine clubs and the winery’s website: kitawines.com. I attended the Kitá Wines launch party at the winery, tasted the whole line up of wines, and watched as Tara received a proclamation from the California State Legislature recognizing the Chumash as “the first Native American tribe to have a Native American winemaker, vineyard, and winemaking operations run solely by tribal people.” Tara has worked tirelessly on this project; it’s not uncommon for her to put in 80-hour weeks. “It’s been like three years in the making, and to finally get to this point, it’s just,ah, a sigh of relief,” Tara said with a broad smile, clearly overjoyed with the positive response. “I’m extremely proud of her,” her father added. Science-minded Gomez graduated from St. Joseph High School in Santa Maria, attended Allan Hancock College, and earned an enology degree from Fresno State in 1998. The Chumash awarded Tara a tribal scholarship to help her pay for college. “I got my education through the financial support of the tribe,” she said.