Livermore Valley AVA unique east-west orientation, unlike many other winegrowing valleys. Due to a reliable onshore afternoon/evening breeze off of the San Francisco Bay a wide fluctuation in temperature between sites and a large diurnal temperature swing occur. Livermore Valley is considered a Winkler Region III grape growing zone with temperatures comparable to northern Napa Valley appellations such as St. Helena or Calistoga. The relatively obscure Petite Sirah grape produced Livermore's best historically known red wine, although the climate also makes for interesting dessert wines as well as excellent Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Rhone varieties. The original plantings of Sémillon and Sauvignon blanc
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