AGOSTON HARASZTHY - First Sheriff of San Diego County

AGOSTON HARASZTHY

(Father of California Wine)

Count Agoston Haraszthy, a Hungarian Nobleman born in 1812, came to the United States in 1840. He was a resident of California from 1849 to 1868 and he was San Diego County's first Sheriff.

At the time of its creation on February 18, 1850 the County of San Diego, which included the present counties of Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino and the eastern portion of Inyo, had a population of 798 and covered nearly 40,000 square miles. It was one of the original 27 counties of California. Count Agoston Haraszthy was elected sheriff when San Diego was first chartered and two months later was chosen the first marshal of the newly incorporated City of San Diego.

After settling in San Diego, Haraszthy studied soil conditions and learned much about the flora and suitable cultivation in the arid climate of the region. He learned about the Mission grape which he was surprised to find was of true European origin. He noted defects in the quality of the wine and he became convinced that plantings of nobler varieties could be commercially viable. He sensed that by planting vines brought directly from Europe he could realize his old dream of producing wine of a quality that could compete with good Hungarian and other European wines. It was here in San Diego that he first began to preach that good wine can only be made from good grapes.

To put his theory into practice, he and some of his friends bought a tract of 160 acres in Mission Valley, a few miles northeast of San Diego where he planted cuttings of grapevines which he had ordered from Europe. Dissatisfied with the results due to the sub-tropical climate which is so much warmer than that of the traditional wine producing regions, he explored the Bay area of San Francisco and on an impulsive decision bought a plot of fifty acres near San Francisco's Mission Dolores in March 1852. A few days later he added 160 more acres. By then he had resigned his posts of sheriff and city marshal and was now the first representative of the district in the state assembly. At the end of the legislative session, he liquidated his holdings in San Diego and except for occasional business visits, never returned.

At his new ranch Haraszthy designed and laid out a nursery and horticultural garden which he named Los Flores. With his son's help he planted fruit trees and shrubs imported from the East. It was at this time that he received a shipment of six choice rooted vines and 160 cuttings from Hungary. In the shipment were two small bundles one was the Muscat of Alexandria and the other was said to be the famous mystery grape, the Zinfandel. Haraszthy's role in the development and popularization of its culture was great, and today the Zinfandel is the most widely planted red wine grape in California.

During the years Haraszthy continued his experiments with foreign vine varieties. In 1857 his attention was called to the vineyard of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo at Sonoma. At the time Haraszthy made his first appearance at Sonoma in 1857, Vallejo was the leading vintner. Vallejo, well aware of Haraszthy's interest in wine, invited him to his estate to taste the wine of which he was inordinately proud. With his first glimpse of Sonoma Valley and its rich soil, he sensed instantly that his long search had ended.

At first he bought a parcel of sixteen acres called Vineyard Farm which had been planted in 1834 by Salvadore Vallejo. Haraszthy then began transporting cuttings to Sonoma. Among the first vines transplanted was the Zinfandel. After buying more land in the valley, Haraszthy named his new domain Buena Vista or "Beautiful View Again" where he built one of the finest houses in the Bay area.

In the development of Buena Vista one could see Haraszthy at his enthusiastic best. He planted vines and more vines, and by the end of 1857 he had more than tripled the total grape acreage of Sonoma Valley. In that single year he had planted 80,000 vines on about 118 acres.

Later after one of his wine cellars containing vintages of two years was destroyed by fire, Haraszthy traveled to Nicaragua where he bought a sugar plantation. In 1868 an unexpected calamity occurred. His wife, came down with yellow fever and died. In 1869 while sailing to California, he died on board ship. His obituary reads that he was eaten by a crocodile as his body never surfaced.