Counting the years

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first modern agricultural corporation in California — the Buena Vista Vinicultural Society, created by Count Agoston Haraszthy — are Tom Blackwood of Buena Vista Winery, George “The Count” Webber and Sonoma Mayor Ken Brown.

When the winery was incorporated, 6,000 shares were sold at $100 apiece based on a prospectus that said, “The richness and variety of the soil admits of the cultivation of every kind of grape grown for the manufacture of red and white wines and brandy; while the mild and equable climate, marked by a total absence of frost and hail, those scourges of European wine-producers, gives an entire certainty of full yearly crops.”

Exactly 150 years later, on March 27, a celebration was held in the winery’s champagne cellars.