Agoston Haraszthy - The Zinfandel Controversy

The Zinfandel Controversy

The claim that Haraszthy brought the first Zinfandel vines to California is a subject of controversy. In the 1870s and 1880s, Haraszthy's son Arpad Haraszthy stated that his father brought the first Zinfandels to California in the early 1850s, possibly as early as 1852. Arpad was then a well-known champagne producer in San Francisco and President of the California State Board of Viticultural Commissioners, and his statement was widely accepted. A century later, however, California wine historian Charles L. Sullivan began to challenge Arpad's statement.

In 2003, Sullivan published a book in which he showed that other men brought the Zinfandel to the East Coast of the United States as early as the 1820s and to California at unspecified dates in the 1850s. Although Sullivan praised Agoston Haraszthy as a “truly important figure in the history of the American West” and “an important force in the history of California winegrowing”, he argues that there is no credible evidence that Haraszthy brought the Zinfandel to California and that Arpad Haraszthy’s claim about it was a “myth”. In his biography of Haraszthy, however, McGinty presents evidence that Haraszthy may well have obtained Zinfandel vines as early as 1852 with the help of Lázár Mészáros, former Hungarian Minister of War and an avid horticulturalist who was then operating a nursery in New Jersey. This evidence would tend to corroborate Arpad Haraszthy's recollections. Sullivan does not discuss it in his book, thus leaving the issue in controversy.