Wine tasting boutiques offer the charm of Tuscany, convivial company, award-winning wines

Looking for that APPELLATION

Tina Fisher Cunningham

With his wife Lisa, Cliff Meridth, left, a retired Los Angeles County Fire Department Batallion Chief, cultivates the 700 vines he planted in 2009 at his Stray Leaves Vineyard on Highline Road in Tehachapi Valley.

In the wine grape cultivation and tasting room business, every vineyard owner cheers for the success of other vineyards in the vicinity. Visitors like to ramble from one tasting room to another, the more destinations the merrier. "We're all in the game together," Bob Souza of Souza Family Vineyard said. "We support each other."

The vintners hope to gain a coveted Appellation d'Origine Controlle, which would enable the vintners to use the designation "Tehachapi Valley" on their labels. To be awarded the designation, the area must have 80 acres in cultivation.

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