Sonoma, CA (June 9, 2016) – Buena Vista Winery unveils two new wines which are integral expressions of the venerable history of Buena Vista Winery – Château Buena Vista Napa Valley Cabernet and La Victoire Champagne. With the launch, the winery revives its historical connections to the Napa Valley and Champagne, and enhances the fine wine offering and terroir diversity to reflect the original ambitious vision of Founder Count Agoston Haraszthy for Buena Vista to be one of the premier wineries of California.
Made by Buena Vista Winemaker Brian Maloney, Château Buena Vista Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is born of the estate’s original foundation in the Napa Valley. It hails from vineyards across the valley, and is a rich and opulent Napa red wine with intensity, structure and power. The wine will have a suggested retail price of $50. It pays homage to the 1860’s when Buena Vista’s more than 6,000-acre estate stretched from the winery in Sonoma over the top of the Mayacamas Mountains into the Lovall Valley in Napa. At that time it was one of the largest agricultural estates in California. Haraszthy developed and sold ten-acre lots, each planted with 6,800 vines, with the promise that Buena Vista would purchase the grapes for its wines, thus promoting the development of some of the earliest vineyards in Napa. His zeal to promote and develop Napa and Sonoma for wine was contagious, and led to a boom of wine grapes grown in the region. Many prominent vintners in Napa and Sonoma began their own wineries thanks to Haraszthy’s inspiration.
In pursuit of his vision that California should be a leading wine region in the world, the Count embarked on his now-famous wine expedition to Europe in 1861 with a mission to improve California viniculture. He believed that his most impactful contribution to California winemaking would be to expand the quality and diversity of vines grown, and encourage winemakers to experiment with the best combinations of vineyard, vine and rootstock to find the best fit for their site. Bringing choice cuttings back to California, he propagated them at Buena Vista. Of the 487 varieties that the Count imported from Europe, Cabernet Sauvignon surely remains the most significant. Château Buena Vista Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon honors this legacy in the Napa Valley.
Speaking of the launch, Proprietor Jean-Charles Boisset says, “In honor of Buena Vista’s long history in the Napa Valley, we are proud to release the inaugural vintage of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, deemed Château Buena Vista. The wine depicts the great winery that Haraszthy built – the first of California’s grand monuments to wine making! This is a new classic from California’s first premium winery and the exquisite bottle donning the Château’s image exquisitely reflects the winery’s place in the history of California, Sonoma and the Napa Valley. The Count’s missionary zeal to promote the region for wine grapes was essential to its vinous success… The Count truly discovered Purple Gold and now we celebrate his ambition with the launch of Château Buena Vista Napa Valley.”
Additionally, Buena Vista is also launching La Victoire Champagne, which victoriously returns the historical sparkling wine producer to Champagne, as it was one of the first California wineries to study in Champagne and to produce méthode champenoise sparkling wine in California. Today, it is the first California winery to make Champagne in Champagne.
The bottle, adorned with the eagle that symbolizes America, strength and victory, celebrates the triumph of collaboration between California and Champagne. Boisset and Buena Vista’s winemaking team selected renowned vineyards in Champagne, including 1er Cru Pinot Noir vineyards in Montagne de Reims, and Grand Cru Mesnil-sur-Oger and Chouilly vineyards for the Chardonnay, to produce the ultimate victory of French-American collaboration: Buena Vista La Victoire Champagne. It is a blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay, boasts a low 8.7 g/l dosage and a proprietary bottle that makes it unique in the market.
“Count Agoston Haraszthy envisioned very early on that Champagne would become a prominent and important part of wine culture in California, and determined to produce sparkling wine of the same prestige as Champagne in the cellars of Buena Vista,” said Boisset. “His eldest son Arpad studied in Epernay for two years at the House of Venoges, where he learned the intricacies of the méthode champenoise. He returned to California and produced his first sparkling wine in 1861 in the caves of Buena Vista and produced the first commercially successful méthode champenoise sparkling in California, under the name Eclipse. Like the Count and Arpad pioneering the California Wine World, we are thrilled to bring California to Champagne and Champagne to California… and to commemorate our Franco-American spirit with these fine Buena Vista Wines!”
Château Buena Vista Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and La Victoire Champagne will be available nationwide at fine retailers and restaurateurs. For more information please visit www.buenavistawinery.com.
About Buena Vista Winery
Buena Vista Winery is California’s first premium winery and was founded in 1857 by Hungarian immigrant, Agoston Haraszthy, the self-proclaimed “Count of Buena Vista.” Possessing a deep regard for the significance of Buena Vista’s place in California wine history, Jean-Charles Boisset purchased Buena Vista in April, 2011 and added the winery to the Boisset Collection. Today, Boisset is returning Buena Vista Winery to its original glory with the complete restoration and re-opening of the historic property. The wines are achieving new heights under Winemaker Brian Maloney and Consulting Winemaker David Ramey. Buena Vista Winery is located at 18000 Old Winery Road, Sonoma, CA. For more information, please visit www.buenavistawinery.com.
About Boisset Collection
Boisset is a family-owned collection of historic and unique wineries bound together by a common cause: authentic, terroir-driven wines in harmony with their history, their future and the land and people essential to their existence. With more than twenty historical and prestigious wineries in the world’s preeminent terroirs, including the Côte d’Or, Beaujolais, Rhône Valley, California’s Russian River Valley, Sonoma Valley, and the Napa Valley. To learn more about the Boisset Collection, please visit www.boissetcollection.com. To learn more, please contact Tamara Stanfill at Tamara.Stanfill@boisset.com or 707-963-6939. Images of the Historical Wine Tool Museum are provided upon request.
