Owner/ Winemaker.
Brittany Banda
I credit the birth of my daughter as being the catalyst to taking a risk on my dreams and starting a whole new life. I had to ask myself, “am I going to take the route I had planned and prepped for of being an Elementary School Teacher or was I going to take a risk on the voice in my head that kept urging me to go towards wine? What advice would I give my own daughter?”.
I would tell her to go for what she really wanted.
In 2019, after one failed attempt at struggling to even go inside the building due to anxiety, I walked into the biggest winery in the area where I was living at the time and pretty much demanded they hire me. I got the job. I worked there for two years and learned many things about the wine industry minus the physical winemaking. I wasn’t even allowed into the barrel room, no one was, unless you were a Kosher observant person. Rightfully so.
So in late summer of 2020, while visiting friends in the industry in Paso Robles, I was invited to help volunteer during harvest. I made the 2 hours 22 minute drive from Oxnard to Paso once a week and on my one day off of being a full time employee (& mom) and immersed myself. It was that harvest where I had the opportunity to purchase my first ton of fruit, some amazing Syrah from Caelesta Vineyard and thus, Xochitl Wines was born.
The Name.
Xochitl is the Nahuatl word for “flower”.
The name, Xochitl Wines, was inspired by my love of roses which began with my late grandfather. My grandfather immigrated to the United States and worked as a part of the Bracero program for years while traveling back and forth to Mexico to see his family. He eventually moved his wife and children to Los Angeles where my grandfather worked as an LA city Parks gardener and made the urban area more beautiful with his roses.
In Herbalism, Roses have the highest frequency and vibration of any other plant. Rose helps us call forth love for one another and for ourselves. Roses are associated with childhood memories, passion, romance, and help uplift our spirit especially after we have experienced great grief or loss. The rose's thorns protect it’s beauty from quick hands and it reminds us that blooming into our most radiant selves requires similar boundaries.
Xochitl is the last day sign in the Mexica calendar and is associated with the Goddess, Xōchiquetzal, a feminine deity of flowers, love, pleasure, and beauty. She is a patron of artists, resides over childbirth and pregnancy. and helps others discover their own path of inner beauty.
