Desc: Purple Gold: Directed by Vanessa McMahon. When most Americans headed west to mine for gold during the California Gold Rush (1848-1855), Hungarian nobleman Agoston Haraszthy came to plant crops and grow wine (aka 'Purple Gold'). Haraszthy, along with a handful of other visionary pioneers, planted the first high quality Vitis vinifera vines in Sonoma and Napa, sowing the seeds for what would become one of the greatest fine wine producing regions in the world.