In Alameda County, California, surrounding the city of Livermore in the Tri-Valley region, the Livermore Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area. Robert Livermore, a landowner whose lands encompassed the valley, is named after both the AVA and the city. The Livermore Basin, the main sub-unit of which is the Mocho Subbasin, is the groundwater basin underlying the valley. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Livermore Basin is one of five aquifers that feed much of the population of the metropolitan Bay Area. Owing to a growing human population leading to higher rates of return of water flows to the aquifer containing such salts, the entire Livermore Basin aquifer faces concern about elevated total dissolved solids by the year 2020.

 

Since the 19th century, wine has been grown in Livermore, with the Cresta Blanca Winery (founded in 1882) being one of the earliest, and well-respected, with its first vintage (1884) winning the Grand Prix at the Paris Exposition in 1889, being the first California wine in France to win a competition. During Prohibition, however, vineyards were shuttered, except for two wineries, Concannon and Wente.

 

Livermore had as much area under the vine as Napa Valley did at that time in the early 1960s. It remained largely unknown, however, while Napa rose to popularity worldwide. In the Livermore Valley, Wente Vineyards has long been the largest producer, producing around 700,000 cases of wine annually with wholesale, tasting room and export sales. It was first founded in 1883 in the valley and is now the oldest continuously operated winery owned by a family in the United States. The other large producer, Concannon Vineyard, was also established in 1883 and its wines are available nationally, along with a direct sales tasting room. The remainder are entirely recent and substantially smaller.

 

Misson Wines, McKahn Family Cellars, Nottingham Cellars, Murrieta's Well The Winemakers' Studio, Steven Kent Winery, Wood Family Vineyards, McGrail Vineyards, Cuda Ridge Winery, Retzlaff Winery, Fenestra Winery, Occasio Winery, Stony Ridge/Crooked Vine Cellars, Longevity Wines, Rodrigue Molyneaux Winery, 3 Steves Winery, Big White House/John Evan, Charles R Vineyards, Garre Vineyards are among these wineries.