Val Haraszthy is giving ‘em the Willys

Vallejo 'Val' Haraszthy has definitely inherited the adventurous spirit of his great-great-grandfathers – Agoston Haraszthy, thought by some to be the father of the California wine industry, and Gen. Mariano Vallejo, thought by some to be the father of Sonoma.

While Agoston, who founded the historic Buena Vista Winery, started out in Hungary and brought his family across the country from east to west in a covered wagon to find perfect vineyard land and make and sell wine, Val is motoring from west to east, more or less, selling wine.

Co-owner with wife Vickie of Haraszthy Family Cellars and Bearitage wines, Val has given up his motorcycle road trips and fills his wanderlust by traveling the country calling on wine distributors in his 1950 Willys, towing a trailer equipped with Weber barbecues and coolers.

This is actually a very organized endeavor where he covers about eight states per trip, leaves his rig with a friendly distributor, flies home for a few days, and then leaves again to return to his Willys and Webers, and somehow keeps to a tight schedule.

According to Vickie, the distributors can hardly wait to see him coming. And guess what? They buy his wine. He shows up, lights up, cooks, and feeds them all the pork roast, cole slaw and beans they can eat.

The Willys MB, or 'Jeeps' as they became known, were actually developed and built by the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation for World War II and got updated during the Korean War for heavy use. But Haraszthy's 'Wild Willys' isn't just any old Jeep. Since he had to replace brakes not too long ago in Oregon, everything in this buggy is new, including the 360 horsepower fuel-injected Corvette engine that Val calls 'the rocket.'

Having specialized in zinfandels, Haraszthy Family Cellars now makes a Lodi Zin, an Amador Zin, Sonoma Valley Indian Springs Zin, a Dry Creek Zin distributed by Bronco Wine Co., and under their new Bearitage label, a Lodi Sauvignon Blanc and a Lodi Red Blend.

The Haraszthys expect to make a total of 25,000 cases of wine this year, and hopefully grow to 100,000 in three years. And do they ever deserve the success.

Val will definitely be home this summer to help Vickie welcome granddaughters about to be born to sons and wives Kyle and Vanessa and Evan and Alex Haraszthy. Here come sixth generation Haraszthys and Vallejos in Sonoma.