Buena Vista Winery

Before there were vineyards in every valley north of San Francisco, before Napa and Sonoma were household names, before there was a California wine world at all, there was Buena Vista. Founded in 1857, Buena Vista is California’s first premium winery, and its history is as colorful as it is proud. Today, the legend is being re-born under the vision of Jean-Charles Boisset. Our future is our past… our vivacious, colorful, and pioneering past! 

Buena Vista Winery has a rich, delicious heritage as the first premium-and certainly the most colorful-of all of the wineries in California. And its founder, the self-proclaimed “Count of Buena Vista,” Agoston Haraszthy, was a vivacious and eccentric pioneer with a veritable love and unending commitment to California wine.

Surrounded by his own tales of intrigue and political exile, The Count immigrated from Europe in 1840 in pursuit of opportunity and freedom in the burgeoning American West. Following the forty-niners in search of gold in the hills of Northern California, Haraszthy sought “purple gold” – the perfect ‘terroir’ for exceptional wine. He ultimately settled in Sonoma, birthplace of California and capital of the short-lived California Republic, where he founded Buena Vista Winery in 1857.

A committed farmer, an experimental innovator and vintner, a respected author, a shrewd businessman and a brilliant and incredibly zealous promoter, The Count is considered California’s most acclaimed and flamboyant vinicultural pioneer and evangelist.

Despite his abrupt death in 1869 in a crocodile-infested river in the jungles of Nicaragua and following the challenges of the depression, prohibition, and phylloxera infestation; his beloved Buena Vista Winery has not only endured but also prospered. Boisset Family Estates, a family with a true love and respect for Buena Vista, is passionately committed to continue the imaginative vision and unrivaled legacy first created by The Count 150 years ago. Please join us in celebrating the rebirth of Buena Vista. Our brilliant history, our spectacular wines and the extraordinary experience at our breathtaking estate. 

Vineyards
From spectacular sites in the Napa Valley to the varied terroir of Sonoma County, our winegrowing team has brought together a collection of sites that express the culmination of The Count’s pioneering work in viniculture. Through connections with family owned vineyards and growers, we source the highest quality grapes that best express the exceptional terroir of California. From the colder locations in the Petaluma Gap for Pinot Noir, to the high elevation exposure of Cabernet Sauvignon on Moon Mountain, we’ve followed his spirit of discovery and adventure in bringing together a family of wines that not only pay tribute to our past, but celebrate the uniqueness of Napa, Sonoma and Buena Vista. 

Winemaking 
Through traditional techniques as well as modern enological knowledge, we make wines that tell the story of viniculture from the historic to the modern with the aim of truly reflecting the character and style of each grape and vineyard. Since 2011 we have resumed winemaking in the first caves of the California wine world, crafting small lot wines in open-top oak fermenters with native yeasts and hand punch-downs. We have restored the exalted promise of Buena Vista to produce exceptional wines worthy of its illustrious past – from Haraszthy to Tschelisteff to Maloney – from the premier Private Reserve wines to the Founder’s Collection, and Sonoma Appellation wines.