Gundlach Bundschu, California’s Oldest Family-Owned Winery, Commemorates 100th Anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

March 22, 2006 (Sonoma, CA) ———— On April 18th, 2006, the Bundschu family of Gundlach Bundschu Winery will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire by retracing the path of events that shaped the course of their family’s business and lives.

Founded in 1858, the thriving Gundlach Bundschu Wine Co. was headquartered in San Francisco, and enjoyed a reputation for producing high-quality wines from its Rhinefarm Vineyard in Sonoma. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake and subsequent fire that struck on April 18th consumed nearly 1 million gallons of wine, offices, the warehouse as well as the family home in Telegraph Hill.

The events of those four days were captured in devastating detail and eloquence in the letters of second-generation patriarch and poet Charles Bundschu upon reaching the safety of Sonoma five days later. Their livelihood destroyed, Gundlach Bundschu as they knew it was gone forever. Fortunately the family had Rhinefarm, where they made their home and harvested their 49th vintage just months after the disaster, something they have now done for 148 consecutive years.

The fifth, sixth and seventh generations of the Bundschu family will gather at 5:13 am to join the public ceremony at Lotta’s Fountain, marking the exact time of the quake. Located at the corner of Kearny and Market streets, the fountain is the city’s oldest surviving monument and was a central gathering point for earthquake survivors 100 years ago. Then the family will walk to key sites and read from the historic family letters. They will begin at the South of Market warehouse where the wine was destroyed, then trek to the site of the family home where Charles’ lifelong writings of poetry were buried in the yard as the fire approached in hopes of saving them (to no avail).

Their journey will culminate in a visit to the Hyde Street Pier on Fisherman’s Wharf, where the Ukiah ferryboat that transported the family to safety is now docked, today bearing the name Eureka. Here, the family will celebrate the realization of Charles’ desperate hope that his descendants would find a way to rebuild “on a shattered base.”

In one passage of his letters, Charles Bundschu expresses concern for two friends visiting from Germany who were staying at the Palace Hotel, which also burned to the ground. He explains that he had invited them to dinner with the German Consul; a gathering that obviously never took place. In the evening, the family will honor that invitation 100 years late, hosting an intimate dinner at the Palace where the guest of honor will be the current German Consul General.

The letters provide a remarkable narrative of the terrible days immediately after the earthquake. One of the few firsthand accounts still in existence today, it captures the heartbreak shared by thousands of San Franciscans as they watched their entire lives engulfed in flames.

“This is such an important part of my family’s history, and also the history of San Francisco,” says Jeff Bundschu, president and sixth-generation vintner of Gundlach Bundschu. “It was a pivotal moment for all of us. Much of who we are today, as a family, a business and a community, can be traced back to 5:13 that morning.”

ABOUT GUNDLACH BUNDSCHU
Gundlach Bundschu is the oldest family-owned and operated winery in California, currently run by the sixth generation of the Bundschu family. The 320-acre estate vineyard was christened Rhinefarm in 1858 by Jacob Gundlach, who started the winery with son-in-law Charles Bundschu. This remarkable site at the base of the Mayacamas Mountain Range is located literally at the crossroads of the Sonoma Valley, Carneros and Napa Valley appellations. The vineyard includes valley floor sites, where Chardonnay and Pinot Noir thrive, and steep benchlands that produce world-class Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. www.gunbun.com

Editors: Copies of Charles Bundschu’s letters and historic photographs from the earthquake are available upon request.