1 ON THE CUSP OF DISCOVERY

Agoston Haraszthy, already a legend in his own mind, took a ship from Hamburg to New York in 1840, his eventual destination California. Wine was one of his many motivations.

News of the gold-strike in California was bound to attract Haraszthy. He had been sadly disappointed that wine was not a proposition in icy Wisconsin. The whole family and a number of friends joined the ’49ers in the gruelling slog by ox-wagon down the Santa Fe trail, losing only one member, his 15-year-old son Gaza, who decided to enlist with a cavalry unit in New Mexico.

Their goal was the new town of San Diego, just developing from the little mission pueblo and with a population of 650. Haraszthy was soon (instantly, rather) speculating in real estate, running a livery stable and even a butcher’s shop, and also running for election. In 1850 he became the town’s first sheriff. The jailhouse he built fell down, but the gallows did its work. Then in 1854 he tired of San Diego, and went to serve on the state assembly in California’s new capital, Sacramento, where he backed a move to divide the state in two. At the same time he bought land between San Francisco and the ocean: 200-odd acres near the old Mission Dolores. Was he about to settle down? If he had enquired about the mission he would have learned that its vineyard was never a success.

Haraszthy nonetheless had a bundle of vines just arived from Hungary, and he planted them. According to his son Arpad, writing years later, they included the first plants of the vine that is inextricably associated with his name: the Zinfandel, and also the Muscat of Alexandria.

There was a brisk market in San Francisco, Haraszthy discovered, for eating grapes. What he could not supply he bought in Los Angeles – the Mission grape was good to eat. Perhaps by buying different varieties from ‘Don Luis’ in Los Angeles he realized the possibilities (and the need) for more varieties in much larger numbers in North California. In any case he rapidly abandoned his