25 Facts About Arpad Haraszthy

Arpad Haraszthy was a pioneer California winemaker best known as the creator of Eclipse champagne, the first commercially successful sparkling wine produced in the state.

Arpad Haraszthy was the first president of the California State Board of Viticultural Commissioners, one of the founding members and first officers of San Francisco's world-famous Bohemian Club, and a frequent and articulate writer on wine, winemaking, and viticulture.

Arpad Haraszthy belonged to the Mokcsai branch of the Haraszthy family, a Hungarian noble family that traced its roots to Ung County in northeastern Hungary, now part of Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine.

Agoston Arpad Haraszthy settled the family on the San Diego Plaza and became prominent in the civic and commercial life of the town.

Arpad Haraszthy attended school in New York while his mother established a home in nearby Plainfield, New Jersey.

Arpad Haraszthy later claimed that Meszaros helped his father obtain cuttings of Zinfandel.

Agoston Arpad Haraszthy was then in the process of transferring vines and vine cuttings from Crystal Springs to his new Sonoma property, which he called Buena Vista.

Arpad Haraszthy was in Paris in late 1861, when his father, mother, and sister Ida arrived there to begin a vine-gathering tour of Europe.

Arpad Haraszthy traveled with his father through France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain, helping him gather vines which were sent back to San Francisco.

Arpad Haraszthy began to make wine at his father's new Buena Vista property in Sonoma, California, in the fall of 1862.

Arpad Haraszthy's first sparkling wines were failures, but later efforts were successful.

On June 1,1863, Arpad Haraszthy married Jovita Vallejo, daughter of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the founder of Sonoma, and his brother Attila Arpad Haraszthy married Natalia Vallejo, Jovita's sister.

Agoston Arpad Haraszthy incorporated the Buena Vista property under the name of the Buena Vista Vinicultural Society in 1863.

Toward the end of 1864, Arpad Haraszthy resigned from Buena Vista and formed a partnership with Pietro Giovanari, overseer of Vallejo's vineyards.

In 1866, Haraszthy moved to San Francisco, where he joined Isidor Landsberger, one of the trustees of the Buena Vista Vinicultural Society, in forming a new firm called I Landsberger.

In 1880, Landsberger withdrew from his partnership with Arpad Haraszthy and was succeeded by Henry Epstein.

Arpad Haraszthy was one of the founding members of San Francisco's world-famous Bohemian Club.

Arpad Haraszthy continued to serve as president of the state board until 1888.

Arpad Haraszthy claimed that his father, Agoston Haraszthy, imported the Zinfandel vine to California.

Arpad Haraszthy was a frequent writer about wine, winemaking, and vineyard practices.

Arpad Haraszthy continued with another series of articles published in the California Wine, Wool, and Stock Journal in 1863 and 1864.

Arpad Haraszthy continued to produce sparkling wine in San Francisco until about 1899.

In early 1900, he went to Nome, Alaska, with his brother Bela Arpad Haraszthy, seeking to strike gold in the northern territory.

When Haraszthy became an associate of I Landsberger and Co.

When Isidore Landsberger sold his interest in the company, Arpad Haraszthy moved his storefront to the same corner, but on the Washington Street side.