Agoston Haraszthy

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Agoston Haraszthy (Ah-gush-tun Harris-tee) (August 30, 1812 in Futak, Hungary-July 6, 1869 in Nicaragua), was one of the founders of modern viticulture in California. Sometimes referred to as "Count Haraszthy", Haraszthy was not actually a count though he was from a noble family.[1] He was invited to Washington by Daniel Webster and other leading Democrats in 1840, to discuss commercial relations between the US and Hungary. Shortly after, Agoston moved west to Wisconsin and eventually spent the majority of the remaining years of his life in California. Although he was a chemist and metallurgist, he spent most of his life in the wine industry in California.

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[edit] Wisconsin

Agoston traveled west in. Impressed by what he saw in Wisconsin, he decided to purchase a small plot along the Wisconsin river. Later along with his partner Robert Bryant, he bought 10,000 acres (40 km²) for a town site and founded Szeptaj, later renamed Sauk City. The name Széptáj is merged from two Hungarian words: szép (nice/beautiful) and táj (region/scenery) together meaning Beautiful scenery. While in Wisconsin he founded the first steamboat transport company on the Wisconsin River. In spite of these successes, Haraszthy was disappointed in not being able to establish the high quality vineyards of his native Hungary.

[edit] On to California

On Christmas day of 1848 Haraszthy, his wife, six children, his father and stepmother, and Thomas W. Sutherland, the former U.S. Attorney for Wisconsin Territory who was Haraszthy's stepbrother departed for California. During their journey to California Haraszthy formed a wagon train of about 60 people in Kansas Territory. As wagon master, Haraszthy led the group safely to San Diego, arriving in late December 1849.

Upon arrival in San Diego, California he purchased a plot adjacent to Mission San Luis Rey and with his sons Attila and Arpad planted a fruit orchard. He later bought 160 acres in conjunction with local friends in Mission Valley and planted peach and cherry trees with stock sent from New York State. While in San Diego he set-up the first regularly scheduled omnibus transit system and established a livery stable and also established a butcher shop.

In the first election after California became a state, in March 1850, Haraszthy was elected county sheriff. In May 1850, the city of San Diego was incorporated and Haraszthy was chosen to be the first City Marshall; his father, Charles, was elected Magistrate and Land Commissioner; his step-brother, Tom Sutherland became San Diego's first City Attorney.

In 1851 Haraszthy was elected to the California State Assembly and resigned his other offices. He succeeded in getting funding for the expansion of San Diego Harbor and the first public hospital in the county. He blocked the establishment of a state telegraph monopoly based in and controlled from San Francisco. He was the first to introduce the legislation to divide California into two states: North and South. That bill died in the State Senate because of powerful interests in Northern California.

[edit] California Wine Industry

While in the legislature, Haraszthy traveled throughout the Bay Area looking for land more suitable to agriculture and horticulture than the subtropical desert of San Diego County. In early 1852 he purchased 210 acres near San Francisco's Mission Dolores. At the end of the Assembly session, he sold all his holdings in San Diego and moved the family north.

In San Francisco, February, 1852 "In his frock coat and stovepipe hat, Colonel Agoston Haraszthy bent over the newly-arrived bundle of European vines, peering through a lens. A faded label bore an unfamiliar name, which seemed to be 'Zinfandel'. He planted them in his garden, and with the unfolding of their leaves unfolded the future of wine growing in California." (Idwal Jones, Vines in the Sun) Haraszthy is often credited with introducing the Zinfandel grape variety into California. However, there is documented evidence that he was mistakenly accredited as noted below.

In 1857, he purchased land in California’s Sonoma Valley within the Arroyo Seco Creek watershed and began planting vineyards. In 1861, the State Legislature commissioned him to travel to Europe in order to purchase grapevines of every possible variety. He pioneered a number of viticulture experiments and innovation and was elected president of the California State Agricultural Society. He was author of the book Grape Culture, Wines, and Wine Making. In 1863 Haraszthy's sons Arpad and Attila were married in a double ceremony to Jovita and Natalia Vallejo the daughters of Don Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo.

In the gubernatorial election, of 1868 Haraszthy supported the proposed Fourteenth Amendment guaranteeing "equal protection under the law" and the Fifteenth Amendment which would give former slaves the right to vote. He was soundly defeated in the election. [2]

[edit] Dispelling the Zinfandel Myth of Agoston Haraszthy

In 2003 Charles Sullivan published a work on the zinfandel grape entitled Zinfandel: A History of A Grape and It's Wine. In this text, Sullivan challenges the notion of Agoston Haraszthy's introduction of the zinfandel grape to California. He contests that the plantings reported to have been planted in Haraszthy's vineyard which were imported from Hungary after a trip that was actually in 1862; the ships log of imports do not mention the zinfandel grape or anything vaguely sounding of zinfandel or the Black St. Peters which has now been accepted as being the zinfandel grape. The grape had already been proliferating for a decade before this illicit trip to Hungary, having been introduced originally on the east coast first by George Gibbs from importation from Vienna. By way of William Robert Prince the vine traveled west whom planted the zinfandel noting, "Zinfindel fine for raisins in Cal. Drying perfectly to raisin." A gentleman by the name of Frederick W Maconday, also imported nursery stock from Boston in 1852 to California, amongst his vines was the zinfandel grape. So the credit for the introduction for the zinfandel grape can be given to multiple men having moved west from the east coast of the United States, a full-decade before the contested myth of Agoston Haraszthy.

The myth propagated by Arpad Haraszthy, Agoston's son whom studied Champagne production in Epernay,France for two years in; had in fact created this legend in multiple writings in papers and journals during 1869 into the 1880s. These writings followed Agoston's death in Nicaragua. Arpad's ability to recall 1852, is much contested, because in 1851 he was on the east-coast with his mother and siblings. All supporting documents for Agoston Haraszthy being the "father of the wine industry" come directly from Arpad's writings. There is in fact no documentation of Agoston's introduction of the zinfandel grape other than these document's written by Arpad out of reverence for his dead father, whom he came to produce wine with finally in 1862 after the aforementioned two years in Epernay, France from the vines that Agoston imported, and had not included the zinfandel grape.

[edit] Bankruptcy and Nicaragua

After declaring bankruptcy in California 1868 from his failed venture in the Buena Vista Winery, Haraszthy traveled to Nicaragua where he built a distillery. In 1868 his wife died of yellow fever. In 1869 while exploring the interior he disappeared. Evidence suggested he drowned or was eaten by a crocodile.[3]

[edit] Vintners Hall Of Fame

Agoston Haraszthy was nominated and inducted in the Vinters Hall of Fame by the Culinary Institute of America. The election based upon ballots from seventy wine journalists. The decision for their election of Haraszthy for his contributions to the wine industry of California during his life-time.

Inductions with Agoston Haraszthy on March 7, 2007 include Robert Mondavi, Andre Tchelistcheff, Georges de Latour, Charles Krug, Gustave Niebaum, Timothy Mondavi, Maynard Amerine and Harold Olmo.[4]

[edit] See also

[edit] Source

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