Zinfandel Sirah), Carignan, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Mission and Muscat. While most vineyards are now fully segregated, California winemakers continue to use other grapes (particularly Petite Sirah) in their Zinfandel wines. Zinfandel is grown on approximately 11% of California's vineyard land area. Around 400,000 short tons (350,000 tonnes) are crushed each year, depending on the harvest, placing Zinfandel third behind Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon and just ahead of Merlot. In California, 20% of the Zinfandel-growing counties hold 80% of the Zinfandel growing area; however, major producing areas such as San Joaquin County, Stanislaus County, and Madera County produce Zinfandel primarily for blends or
Durif not be consigned to jug wine when he blended small portions into his reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. Since 2002 Assaf Paz enologist and co-owner at Vitkin Winery is consistently producing a single-varietal Petite Sirah as a high end wine sourced from the oldest Petite Sirah vineyard in Israel. Seeing that Israeli "terroir" could grow great Petite Sirah, wineries such as Lewis Pasco the founding winemaker at Recanati followed suit with a Petite Sirah/Zinfandel blend, while others like Sea Horse, Carmel and Tishbi have made single-varietal Petite Sirah in addition to using it for blending. Petite Sirah is sometimes mistakenly spelled "Petite