Saturday, January 23, 2010 – Exaggeration and a grandiose vision spawned the mighty California viniculture.

 

The great Franciscan friar, Junipero Serra, was the first to bring a Vinifera grape, the Mission variety, from Mexico to Baja California where it was grown by Jesuit priests. Unfortunately, it was an inferior grape and the wine was not very good. It was planted at church settlements from San Diego to Sonoma from 1769 to 1823, and this contributed to the lack of development of fine wine in California by almost 100 years. But thanks to Louis Vignes’ success, the hardier European grape variety flourished.

 

Agoston Haraszthy (HAIR –is –tee) was a political exile from Hungary and a promotional genius with a passion for growing grapes. “Count Haraszthy” as he liked to be called, (although he was not), first tried and failed in Wisconsin and moved on to California in 1848.

 

He imported European vines to San Diego and several other locations that were not successful until he moved to Sonoma in 1856, where the vines were thriving. He built a villa, named Buena Vista, with gardens, fountains, tunnels and acres of vineyards. He also wrote pamphlets about the wine-growing climate, and sold his imported cuttings to farmers throughout the state.

 

Haraszthy’s exaggerated and grandiose vision prompted the governor to send him to Europe and bring back more grape varieties, which he did: 100,000 vines of 300 varieties. The state did not reimburse him, but he did collect material for his book, Grape Culture, Wines, and Winemaking. For these efforts he became known as “the father of modern California viniculture.”

 

Two years after returning from Europe, he secured financial support, organized the Buena Vista Viniculture Society and built two wineries. He sent one of his sons to Moet et Chandon in Epernay, France, to learn the Champagne business, but suffered many failures back in Sonoma. The Buena Vista Society had financial problems and when the champagne was finally perfected by a French expert, and a San Francisco newspaper called it “the largest winegrowing estate in the world, and also the most unprofitable.”

 

“Count” Haraszthy’s extravagance caused him to be deposed as head of the Society in 1866, and he left for Nicaragua to build a sugar cane plantation and export rum. He disappeared in 1869. Many believe he fell from a tree limb over a stream on his plantation that was infested with alligators.

 

During the 1870s, the phylloxera vine louse took over Buena Vista and other vineyards. Haraszthy’s son moved to San Francisco and bought a vineyard. During the 1906 earthquake the tunnels of Buena Vista collapsed, and the wineries closed. The arrival of Prohibition caused the memory of “Count” Agoston Haraszthy to diminish, and he was soon forgotten.   

 

In 1941, Frank Bartholomew bought 435 acres in Sonoma, sight unseen. Leon Adams, an international authority on wines and spirits, told Bartholomew he had acquired the long forgotten Buena Vista. As a journalist, Bartholomew gained notoriety and prestige for his new winery when he reopened the tunnels, replanted the vineyards, and brought in expert help to produce excellent wines under the Buena Vista brand. Under Bartholomew’s leadership, Buena Vista became a profitable operation, and while chairman of the board of United Press International, he sold the winery in 1968, keeping the home and a small vineyard.