Double Wedding of the Century

Double Wedding of the Century. . On June 1st, 1863, two of our Count's sons: Attila and Arpad, married two daughters of the founder of Sonoma: General Mariano Vallejo. Attila married Natalia, and Arpad married Jovita. It was the Double Wedding of the Century, and both were true love matches. Our Count had founded Buena Vista in 1857, but his sons were attending college in the East. In 1861 they returned to Sonoma, and soon the talk was of little but these two handsome, rich, unmarried men. , The double wedding took place at General Vallejo's home, a few miles west of here, and many famous luminaries of the time attended, including Senator Fremont. There are still descendents (sic) of the Attila and Natalia marriage in the town of Sonoma today, and several have been married in this courtyard over the last forty years. , The building behind you, the Champagne Cellars, is the single most important historic winery building built in California, where genuine méthode champenoise was first made in the caves in 1862. Arpad had journeyed all the way to Epernay, in the heart of Champagne, to learn how to make this most glorious of sparkling wines. With this knowledge he went on to make the first great California sparkling wine, called Eclipse., California’s First Premium Winery , ~1857~.