Historical Marker · No. 392
Buena Vista Winery and Vineyards
Sonoma, Sonoma County · California
Erected by State Department of Parks and Recreation and Buena Vista Winery and Vineyards, 1980
The bronze says the tunnels were dug. It does not say by whom. Haraszthy hired his crews through Ho Po, a San Francisco labor contractor, and Chinese workers cut the caves into the hillside by hand, raised the first stone cellars and planted the vineyards. By the 1880s anti-Chinese campaigns had pushed most of them out of the valley. The 1906 earthquake collapsed the caves, and in the 1920s the state ran the ranch as a farm for delinquent women. The caves reopened to visitors after Boisset bought the winery in 2011.
What the plaque says
Buena Vista Winery and Vineyards Birthplace of California wine. Founded in 1857 by Colonel Agoston Haraszthy, father of the state's wine industry. Limestone tunnels were dug into the hillside and vineyards were also established. Haraszthy toured Europe in 1861 to gather the cuttings that developed California's wine industry. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 392 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with Buena Vista Winery and Vineyards, December 1, 1980.
Where it stands
38.29955, -122.42265 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Site of Haraszthy Villa — 0.2 mi
- Vineyard and Winery (San Francisco Solano Mission Vineyard) — 1.5 mi
- Blue Wing Inn — 1.8 mi
- Presidio of Sonoma (Sonoma Barracks) — 1.9 mi