Fraternity-Testvériség, 1958 (36. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1958-01-01 / 1. szám
4 FRATERNITY it had convinced him that really excellent wine could be yielded here under better conditions. Within a remarably short while, through action and exhortation, Ha- raszthy caused the valley and adjoining hillsides to be transformed. Where now dozed fields of grass and grain, swarms of men would soon be planting, growing, harvesting grapes. Haraszthy was to see his own holdings march all the way up a mountainside and over and down into Napa County, until he had more than 6,000 acres; within seven years his vineyards alone were to cover some 400 acres. The Colonel did not move to Sonoma until May of 1857; but months earlier he had placed his son, Attila, in charge of his vineyard and had transferred there a large collection of rooted grapevine cuttings from his Crystal Springs property south of San Francisco, where they had not thrived. Among the first vines so transplanted was the Zinfandel, one of his imports from Hungary — a grape that was to become his favorite for red wine. The Colonel called his new place Buena Vista. On an elevation he built one of Sonoma’s finest houses — a white, Pompeian-type villa, with formal gardens in front enclosed by an ornamental fence. In the rear it had spring-fed ponds, with little islands in them. From the porch one looked southwestward across vine rows and miles of grazing land, clear to the Bay of San Pablo. Beyond that lay San Francisco Bay and the metropolis. By the end of 1857 Haraszthy had more than tripled the total grape acreage in Sonoma. In that single year he had planted 80,000 vines, or about 118 acres — 13,000 or more vines on his own property and 67,000 for friends he had induced to settle around him. Among those so influenced, in 1857 or a little later, were Col. A. J. Butler, Major J. R. Snyder, Charles Krug, General Charles H. S. Williams, Emil Dresel, Jacob Gundlach, George L. Wratten. Most of these were men in the public eye. All became skilled vineyardists, and some became outstanding wine producers. Krug crossed the mountains into Napa County to crush grapes for others and to found a winery of his own. Dresel and Gundlach brought German methods to bear in the development of Sonoma table wines; when Dresel died in 1867 his brother, Julius, carried on. The whole group, under Haraszthy’s leadership, experimented boldly, and their success added to Haraszthy’s fame. There was no stone wine cellar in Sonoma when Haraszthy arrived in 1857. By the end of the year, though, the “Sonoma Democrat” of Santa Rosa reported, the newcomer “has a cellar, which is a tunnel . . . 100 feet deep, made in a hillside.” Moreover, the Colonel had found time to produce 6,500 gallons of wine and some brandy and vinegar, had sold many tons of grapes in San Francisco, and was obviously planning still further expansion. He was importing vines in huge quantities. The directors of the California State Agricultural Society saw how he might help others. They asked him to write a treatise on the growing of grapes and wine. He was busy at the time, setting out 30,000 more vines at Buena Vista in January, 1858, but in February he finished the requested “Report on Grapes and Wines of California”. This report, printed and
