Full Belly Files: Goodbye to Kitá Wines

Like many others in the wine business, I was disappointed to learn a couple of weeks ago that Kitá Wines would be shutting down. As far as anyone could tell, this was the first wine brand in modern history to be owned by a Native American tribe with a Native American winemaker at the helm. 

The tribe, of course, was our very own Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, while the winemaker was Tara Gomez, a Chumash descendant. I’m not sure if I was the first to ever write about Kitá and Gomez, but I was certainly one of the earlier journalists to pay attention to this unique project, and probably the first to write a story for national media on the brand. 

That was this 2013 piece for Wine Spectator: “Tribes Take to the Vine: From Santa Barbara to British Columbia, Native American vineyards are a growing business.” The next year, I did a deeper profile on Gomez for the Indy, called “Chumash Winery Is No Joke: Tribal Descendent Tara Gomez Impresses and Inspires with Kitá Wines,” and also covered her more recently for Wine Enthusiast in this Q&A as part of our February 2020 “Advocacy Issue.” Her story is also a full chapter in my book Vines & Vision: The Winemakers of Santa Barbara County.