Old, Historic Wineries of Sonoma County

A couple of days ago was Old historic wineries of Napa Valley. Today it's Sonoma's turn.

Buena Vista in the 1870s
image from Sonoma County Library

Buena Vista, Sonoma, founded 1857

The county's first premium winery, started by Agoston Haraszthy, an immigrant from Hungary. He is considered the father of California wine in that he promoted modern European grape growing and winemaking techniques throughout the state. Up until this time California wine was about the plantings at the Spanish missions up and down the state. Coincidently, the last of the missions is in Sonoma, a short distance from Buena Vista Winery.

The winery was a private home for a while after Haraszthy sold it off under bankruptcy. Buena Vista became a winery again after WWII, went through a few owners, then was purchased by a French immigrant, Boisset, in 2011, who now owns several wineries in the area. He has restored BV, while paying homage to its history.

Tastings are held in an 1862 stone building that once housed wine production.

Gundlach's operation in San Francisco before 1906
image from Gundlach Bundschu Winery

Gundlach Bundschu, Sonoma, founded 1858

Bonded Winery #64, Gundlach Bundschu was founded a few months after Buena Vista, and it has been in the same family the whole time. Jacob Gundlach, born in Bavaria, started the winery and planted grapes on his Rhinefarm Vineyard in 1858 not too far from Buena Vista Winery. A few years later his daughter married Charles Bundschu from Mannheim, Germany and the Gundlach Bundschu Winery name was born. The winery prospered until the 1906 earthquake as they stored their wines in San Francisco and all was lost. They never quite recovered from the quake, then later Prohibition and quit making wine. The Bundschus did plant more grapes and sold them over the years. 

In 1969 fifth generation family member Jim Bundschu began planning to restart the winery and has his first vintage in 1973. His son runs the winery now. 

The first time I visited, about 1980, tastings were held on a wood slab supported by a couple of barrels in the old stone cellar that housed barrel aging and the lab. Today they've modernized and expanded quite a bit.

Louis J. Foppiano, 1910-2012
Took over the winery at 13,
was still pruning grapes at 95
image from Foppiano Winery

Foppiano, Healdsburg, founded 1896

Italian immigrant Gio Foppiano purchased the Riverside Farm vineyard and winery just south of Healdsburg in 1896, renaming it the Foppiano Wine Company and began supplying bulk wine throughout northern Calif. After Prohibition, his grandson began building up the winery. One of his first acts was to sell thousands of gallons of wine made in 1932, an illegal transaction as the wine was actually made while Prohibition was in force. They moved from jug blend wines to bottled varietals, releasing a Foppiano Petite Sirah in 1967. The family still runs the longest continuously operating family-owned winery in Sonoma County. (Gundlach Bundschu has been in the same family longer, but they weren't making wine the whole time).

 

Part of the Kunde's Wildwood Vineyards in Sonoma Valley
image from Dirt Farmer & Co.

 

Kunde, Kenwood, founded 1904

Now in the fifth generation of ownership, started by German immigrant Louis Kunde. The family sold the winery to local company, Vintage Wine Estates, a couple of years ago, but retained ownership of the nearly 2,000 acres of land in Sonoma Valley. Historical ruins on the mountainside behind the winery were used in movie Bottle Shock. 

Image from Sebastiani Vineyards

Sebastiani, Sonoma, 1904

Established by Samuele Sebastiani, a stonemason from Tuscany, again not far from Buena Vista Winery. You'll see a lot of buildings around town with the Sebastiani name because during the Depression he came up with projects to keep the locals employed. Several generations ran the winery, but cracks appeared with family squabbles going back into the 1980s. In a shock to the locals the Sebastiani family sold to billionaire winery owner Bill Foley in 2008. He has done upgrades to the buildings and property.

My first Sebastiani wines were the jugs of what they called Country Cabernet and Country Zinfandel. Wines that were definitely in the Italian tradition.

Fort Ross State Park
image from Fort Ross Interpretive Assoc

The first grapes in Sonoma County

The Mission at Sonoma was established in 1823. It was the last and northernmost of the missions. It was the only mission built by Mexicans rather than Spanish as Mexico became independent in 1821. They planted what are commonly called mission grapes, the first European grapevines in California.

The first cultivated vineyard was actually planted at a Russian colony on the wild northern Sonoma Coast. Russians from Alaska established a settlement at what's now called Ft. Ross in 1812 that lasted 30 years. This remote outpost hunted, fished, raised livestock and crops for survival. Wine grapes brought in from Peru were planted by the settlers in 1817. 

Info from the various winery websites and the Ft Ross website