Chief Solano

Chief Solano. At the beginning part of the 19th Century, Northern California was a wild land full of Native American tribes. Chief Solano (born Sem-Yeto) was a member of the Suisun tribe, born around 1800. In 1810, he was baptized under the name "Francisco Solano" at the Franciscan mission in San Francisco and remained there until adulthood. In 1823, he and the rest of the Suisunes living in San Francisco moved into the new Mission San Francisco de Solano (last of the California missions and one which you can still visit today) in what would become Sonoma, to help build and populate it. , A year after arriving at Mission San Francisco de Solano, he and Padre Jose Altimira planted several thousand grape vines on the property, for the purposes of making sacramental wine. Thus was the beginning of wine production in Sonoma, and the end of our walk back through time. We hope you enjoy your visit to Buena Vista Winery. Welcome! , Count Agoston Haraszthy, the founder of Buena Vista Winery, was born on August 30, 1812 in the town of Pest, Hungary and was still a child at the time of the founding of Mission San Francisco de Solano. The Count emigrated to the United States in March 1840 and to California in 1849. California’s First Premium Winery , ~1857~.