Agoston Haraszthy: The Father of California Wine

If you take a moment to ponder who deserves the title as Father of Californian wine, a few names may pop into mind. Limiting our scope to recent generations, Robert Mondavi might be the most obvious choice, as he helped to transition Napa Valley from its post-prohibition bulk wine doldrums to its rightful place among the greats of the modern wine producing regions. Martini, Heitz, Jackson, and Gallo are also notable for expanding the market and name recognition of California wines. Reach back to the early 20th century and 19th century, and names like Beringer, Krug, Niebaum, de Latour and Schram were clearly innovators who created a legacy through enduring wineries and introducing winemaking techniques still employed today.

The title of “Father” though, suggests that one has to create an industry where previously there was none. As influential as those greats were, winemaking, and more importantly wine as commerce pre-dated their arrivals to the Napa/Sonoma region. It is difficult to argue when looking at the full picture that Agoston Haraszthy (pronounced “hair-is-tee”) truly deserves credit for bringing viable wine trade to the west coast.

By the time the ultra-mercurial Haraszthy settled in Sonoma in 1856/57, for a man of 44, he had already lived the equivalent of three lifetimes. Haraszthy was born into Hungarian nobility in 1812, and by eighteen served in the employ of Marie Antoinette's nephew, Francis I, as his royal bodyguard. Agoston's family worked in the wine trade, and influenced his later vocational calling. Later, while still in Hungary, Haraszthy worked as secretary to the Archduke and eventually legal magistrate.

Agoston then spent a few years traveling in America and wrote a two volume book about his experiences, released in Hungarian. His writing generated the capital he required to invest in what he saw as a burgeoning new economy on the west coast. After settling briefly in Wisconsin, where in a short time he managed to start a store, a steamship service, mills and develop farmland – and legendarily kill a wolf with his bare hands - Haraszthy moved on to San Diego around 1850.

Remarkably, again in a very short time, Haraszthy became the first sheriff, first town marshal, an assemblyman, and built the first city jail, while in his spare time planting vineyards with his family. After moving on for a few years to San Francisco where he worked at the new U.S. Mint and developed agricultural businesses, Haraszthy finally found his way to Sonoma, perhaps not coincidentally after being charged with embezzling from the new mint; he was later cleared.

As with much of the rest of his life, Haraszthy's next few years would have been viewed at the time as frenetic and bordering on failure; however with the benefit of hindsight we can see his accomplishments for what they were.