Talk:Agoston Haraszthy

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[edit] Article Name Change

His name was apparently spelled Ágoston Haraszthy with a dash on the A. On April 15, 2007, I created a redirect from Ágoston Haraszthy to Agoston Haraszthy but perhaps the article should be Ágoston Haraszthy with a redirect from Agoston Haraszthy. Any thoughts? Bundas 02:18, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

It is quite common to see the name as it is currently titled. (In its Anglicanized style). Unless there is compelling evidence that "Ágoston Haraszthy" is more common, I don't see a reason to move. AgneCheese/Wine 03:08, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
Yes, I have done quite a bit of reading on Haraszthy and it is more common to see his name without the accent. It can't hurt to have the re-direct but I do not see people typing in the accent in searches either for his name as it is not the common spelling of his name as the majority of his public life was in the USA where he did not use the accent on his name.Christopher Tanner, CCC 03:38, 16 April 2007 (UTC)tanner-christopher

[edit] D'Agostini and zinfandel

Hi, my edit regarding D'Agostini Winery and zinfandel was reverted with the note that this has been proven false. Any place where that can be cited so that I can put that in the D'Agostini article? I know this is really a topic for the talk page of that article, but I kind of doubt anyone besides me is watching that. :) Thanks. howcheng {chat} 02:05, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Never mind, figured it out myself. Wonder why I didn't turn [1] this up in Google when I started the D'Agostini article. howcheng {chat} 02:13, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
I hasn't turned up because Sullivan's work turned upside down the whole notion of a mythical figure. Sort of like Dom Perignon with Champagne. People like to have a central figure to look up to and even when discredited they sometimes ignore the truth. For wine intellectuals however, Sullivan is considered a genius of Zinfandel history.--Christopher Tanner, CCC 05:26, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
OMG Charles Sullivan is my high school history teacher! I saw his photo "inside the book" on Amazon and it looked awfully like the memory I have of him from 20 years ago. My sister then confirmed by checking her yearbook and lo and behold, it's the same guy, just older. How funny. howcheng {chat} 16:16, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rewrite

I am new to this article, but not to the study of Agoston Haraszthy. I appreciate those who created the article and have edited it from time to time. I regret that it is really not a satisfactory encyclopedia article. It contains glaring factual errors, is unbalanced in some of its important comments, and completely ignores the standard biography of Haraszthy: Strong Wine: The Life and Legend of Agoston Haraszthy by Brian McGinty. This biography was published to good reviews by Stanford University Press in 1998 and is widely available in libraries, on Amazon, and in other sources. The book has 579 pages of carefully researched text, notes, bibliography, and index. Reading it would reveal important errors in this article. For example, Haraszthy was not born in Futtak (Futog), Hungary, but in Pest. McGinty has verified this on the basis of the original baptismal record in Budapest. Haraszthy’s name was never “Agoston Haraszthy de Mokcsa.” That is a 1930's effort to render the Hungarian “Mokcsai Haraszthy Ágoston” in a French style, but Haraszthy never, ever wrote his name this way, and would be astonished to see it written in this way in this article. Since this is an English language article, there should be no accent over the A in his first name--the accent would be appropriate if this article were in Hungarian. Thomas Sutherland was not Haraszthy's step-brother. By a marriage contracted in Wisconsin long after Haraszthy was an adult, Haraszthy's father did have a stepson by the name of William Clark, but it is doubtful that Haraszthy ever regarded Clark as his step-brother. Thomas Sutherland had no such relationship to Haraszthy. The discussion of whether Haraszthy called himself a “count” (he did in Wisconsin but never in Hungary, California, or Nicaragua) and whether he had anything to do with bringing the Zinfandel to California is badly misstated. I could comprehensively revise this article, based on the research in the McGinty book and other authentic sources, but do not want to do so if the previous contributors to this article would strongly object. The last thing I want is to get into an editing war. I hope the tone of this comment, though frank, does not arouse hackles. It is written in a friendly spirit. My only interest is in seeing a factual and balanced article about Haraszthy on Wikipedia, stating his faults as well as his many solid accomplishments. Any thoughts?Americanuslex 15:44, 23 October 2007 (UTC)americanuslex