TAAR presents Taste Tehachapi Bingo Contest

Tehachapi Area Association of Realtors is excited to announce a Restaurant BINGO contest called TASTE TEHACHAPI with more than $1,700 worth of gift cards to be won!

TAAR President Stacey Peel said, “We want to encourage our community to support our family-owned eateries as they support us. We do not want to see any of our local businesses close down during this difficult time.”

The Taste Tehachapi contest will run from March 1 through 31. Visit 10 family-owned eateries located in Tehachapi, save your receipts and turn in your tasting card to the TAAR office with a copy of receipts by April 9 to be entered into the drawing. It will be one card per person, and you must visit 10 different restaurants for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

The Taste Tehachapi tasting cards will be available with this article (just cut it out), at supporting restaurants, and at the TAAR office located 20705 South St., #A. You can also visit the TAAR website at tehachapiaor. com to download a card or email us at TasteTehachapi@gmail.com and we can email you a card.

We would like to give a huge shoutout to the local eateries that have donated gift cards toward the Taste Tehachapi prizes. Thank you for supporting our bingo contest:

Ichiban, 675 Tucker Road;

Kohnen’s Country Bakery, 125 W. Tehachapi Blvd. #D;

TK Pizza & Pasta, 640 W. Tehachapi Blvd. #B;

Steampunk Café & Grill, 20324 W. Valley Blvd.;

Johnny’s Take and Bake Pizza, 807 Tucker Road #C;

Veritas Tapas and Wine Bar, 695 Tucker Road #C;

Old Towne Pizza, 20430 Brian Way #5;

Triassic Vineyards, 24627 Cummings Valley Road;

Midori Sushi, 498 W. Tehachapi Blvd. #456;

Dorner Family Vineyard, 18274 Old Ranch Road;

Taco Samich, 211 E. Tehachapi Blvd.;

King Of Siam, 760 Tucker Road #B;

Prime Bar & Grill, 480 E. Steuber Road;

4 Seasons Café, 160 W. Tehachapi Blvd.;

P-Dubs Brew Pub, 20632 South St.;

P-Dubs Grille and Bar, 27725 Stallion Springs Drive;

Henry’s Café, 550 Tucker Road #D;

Petra’s Mediterranean, 200 S. Green St.;

Papa’s House, 27821

Stallion Springs Drive;

The Shed, 333 E. Tehachapi Blvd.;

Redhouse BBQ, 426 E. Tehachapi Blvd.;

TehachaPie at Mill Street Kitchen, 208 S. Mill St. #A;

Gold Mountain Sports Tavern, 20601 W. Valley Blvd.;

Kelcy’s Restaurant, 110 W. Tehachapi Blvd.;

Perfetto’s Italian Bistro, 209 S. Green St.;

Moessner Farm Café, 25000 Bear Valley Road;

Thai Hachapi, 117 E. F St.;

Bean Me Up Xpresso, 20001 W. Valley Blvd.; and

Don Perico, 840 Tucker Road.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Tehachapi Area Association of Realtors, this is our mission statement and vision statement. Our mission is to advocate for, protect and promote the standards of Realtos for the benefit of the communities they serve. And our vision is to support and unite our members through uncommon leadership, professionalism and service.

A special thank you to Tehachapi News for being our media sponsor.

The Tehachapi Wine and Cattle Company premiered its first bottling under the new Tehachapi Mountains American Viticultural Area status during a Saturday event at its tasting room in Cummings Valley.

Among the nearly 200 guests were Bob and Patty Souza, the original owners of the vineyard. Despite being told by local agricultural experts that grapes would not grow — let alone flourish — in the Tehachapi area, the Souzas on a hot summer day in June 2003, along with their family and a cadre of friends and neighbors, planted 4,000 flowering root stock vines.

That gave birth to more vineyards and tasting rooms in the Tehachapi region.

The Souzas sold the business to current owners Michael Van Atta and Beth Hamilton.

The grapes used in Saturday’s featured Primitivo bottling came from the last Souza harvest prior to selling, and the first bottling to be done under the new AVA region designation under the Tehachapi Mountains.

During the original planting in 2003, whole families came out to help plant the rows. The families then had that row of 85 vines named after them. Celebrating a treasured past are Karen Hazelhurst at row 3, and Lydee Richmond at row 4. They and their family members planted their rows on a hot summer day, June 28, 2003.

LEFT: The Tehachapi Mountains wording denotes the AVA awarding of the Tehachapi area as its own wine region. The Tehachapi Wine and Cattle Company bottled 118 cases of its red 2017 Proprietor’s Reserve Primitivo. The wine had a coming out tasting event Saturday at the tasting room in Cummings Valley.

NICK SMIRNOFF / FOR TEHACHAPI NEWS Patty Souza, Bob Souza, Beth Hamilton and Michael Van Atta reflect on the success of Tehachapi Wine and Cattle Company, its tasting room and the area’s designation as a wine region as awarded by the AVA.

Bob and Patty Souza stand with plant number one in row number one of the vineyard. “The plant that started it all,” as Bob Souza likes to say, was planted by his mother, Helen. Not one to tire easily, she went on to plant 84 additional vines comprising all of row No. 1.

The wine god Bacchus was shining down Saturday morning. Just minutes before the noon start of the event, a very wet and cold rainy morning gave way to clearing clouds and warm sunshine.

Following a long tradition of first day premiere pourings, Beth Hamilton signs a bottle of the new wine for one of their guests.