BOOK REVIEW by MAGYAR-AMERICAN
SONOMA WINE and the Story of Buena Vista
by Charles L. Sullivan
C 2013 Boisset Family Estates (Owner of Buena Vista Winery and financiers of this book project.)
Though there were people of many ethnic backgrounds involved in bringing a multitude of wine grape varieties and wine making to California, Agoston Haraszthy, an early Hungarian immigrant to the United States, and his Buena Vista Winery are the focus of this book that is interesting for the history it reveals without being an overly commercial advertisement for the winery.
Coming from what would be the landed gentry class of Hungarians, but without an aristocratic or noble family, Haraszthy arrived in 1840, leaving his wife behind. He was a follower of Istvan Szechenyi in his belief in "Progress and Industry." With an eye to business development and self promotion, he published a travelogue about his travels in American in 1844. By 1842 his wife had arrived in pre-state Wisconsin, his first attempt at settlement. (He called himself "count". Then they moved to California. By 1858 he was claiming to have made 60 gallons of "Tokay" using California grapes: the result was not comparable to the Tokaji wine made in North East Hungary. He began to plant not only the California native "Mission" grape but a number of East Coast varieties, began to sell cuttings and rooted Vines to Sonoma neighbors and relied increasingly on a Chinese labor force brought from Guangdong by Ho Po. He ventured into raisins.
A University of California professor named Eugene Hilgard became one of the Berkeley scholars who supported Haraszthys hopes for California agriculture. Haraszthy continued to travel and went to Europe where he bought 487 varieties of grape to be imported to California. Of these today about 31 are well established and produce wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Riesling, and Sauvignon Blanc. A partial list of his buys includes some names I never heard before. Maybe those of you who are more wine savvy have; Azelante White, Somaylolo Blue, Kovatsy White, Valtozo Goher, Kardarka - dreg, Bogdany Dinko, Tokay Blanc, Cingadi White, Sarfeher White. (I pride myself on selecting for my partial lists names that I'm sure are Hungarian and now I want to know more about these grapes!)
The book's second focus is the PHYLLOXERA that wiped out wineries in the United States, France - Europe - and Hungary, because this louse, called the "Great Destroyer" which caused wine root infestation and ruined crops for years is a main cause of the immigration to the United States by my own ancestors. Unknown west of the Rockies before the 1860's it took till 1869 for French scientists working on the problem to identify the louse.
Agoston Haraszthy died in 1869 but by then he had three sons, one who also became a wine grower and maker, and his Buena Vista Winery was one of several that had great impact on the future of Calirfornia wines. Today at the winery theatrical performances include an actor playing the "Hungarian nobleman."
What of the Buena Vista Tokaji? There really isn't one. The winery uses barrels from France and Hungary, without the thick mold that's on walls and ceilings in the cellars of Tokaji wineries. They haven't given up and while there you can taste it - from imported bottles.
