SAN FRANCISCO -- One hundred years ago last week, Charles Bundschu had a dinner engagement with the German counsel at the Palace Hotel that had to be postponed when this city of 410,000 residents was destroyed by earthquake and fire.

In that cataclysmic event of April 18, 1906, Bundschu, then the owner of one of California's most successful wine operations, lost nearly everything, including his million-gallon winery warehouse and his home atop Telegraph Hill, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay.

In the weeks that followed, Bundschu resolved to start anew, and it was this determination that helped California's wine country regain its prominence in the decades that followed. Bundschu's return to the land spurred this. It was a 500-acre parcel at the southern tip of Sonoma Valley, one of his only remaining assets.

The family that still owns the Gundlach Bundschu winery staged a huge family reunion last week, spanning generations, marriages and states, and did it so on the 100th anniversary of the big quake. At 4:30 a.m., they gathered at Lotta's Fountain in San Francisco for a public celebration marking the quake's centennial.

Winery principals Jim Bundschu and his son, Jeff, staged a four-mile historical walk through the city for more than four dozen family members, to visit the sites that represent touchstones in the life of Charles Bundschu, culminating in the long-delayed black-tie dinner with the German counsel general at the Palace Hotel.

The walk started with a visit to the original warehouse, which was destroyed by fire 15 hours after the quake. The building is now a photography studio. The 50-odd members of the family then walked circuitously through the city, visiting famed spots -- Chinatown, the TransAmerica building, Coit Tower, Fisherman's Wharf -- and stopping in at the city's oldest, continuously operating saloon, called simply the Saloon, for Bloody Marys.

Another stop was at one of three family homes atop a hill overlooking the wharf, all of which were destroyed during the blazes. Charles, who documented his agonies in letters, poems and songs, wrote that he buried the family silverware in the garden before leaving the home he knew would be incinerated.

"Can we have our silver back now?" asked one family member.

"Sure," said Susan Mackowski, the owner of the home today. "It's right there down the slope in the garden, under all that oxalis (weeds). The more you get that oxalis out of there, the better your odds of finding it!"

Finally, around noon, the group boarded the now permanently docked Eureka ferry, the very boat that took Charles and his family over to the Oakland side of the bay literally hours after he watched flames engulf his mansion.

What saved the Bundschus was Charles' indomitable spirit. He fell back on his Rhinefarm property and began to grow grapes. Before long, the Gundlach Bundschu winery was resurrected, and today, under the able guidance of wine maker Linda Trotta, the winery is thriving, not only under its own name and an affiliated brand, but also with a companion winery it operates under a trust from the state.

Rhinefarm turned out to be a special place. Today, its 320 acres successfully ripen warm-loving cabernet sauvignon on some of its warmer spots, cooler-preferring chardonnay and pinot noir on others, and a number of other grapes, including gewurztraminer, which makes a stellar wine.

The pre-1906 portion of the winery's history was based pretty much on generic wine sold in bulk, as well as fortified wine like Port. Today, the winery's varietals are among the most reliable in the state and very fairly priced. Yet still, the winery flies under the radar.

Part of the reason may lie in the warm and family-oriented manner in which the current Bundschus operate.

Moreover, the winery spends a lot less on marketing and image-building than many others, and uses humor to get its message out. (One successful poster distributed in the past showed a policeman, his foot on the running board of an elderly lady's Model A Ford, saying, "If you can't say Gundlach Bundschu Gewurztraminer, you shouldn't be driving.")

The feeling I got after spending literally all day and most of the evening with the Bundschus, their in-laws and their "outlaws" (those connected by marriage), is that this is what wine is all about: family, friends and great wine.

And it all began with the land.

Wine of the Week: 2004 Gundlach Bundschu Gewurztraminer, Sonoma Valley ($18) -- A stylish, off-dry version of this Alsace grape, loaded with gardenia/carnation, lichee nuts and spice, and just a tad on the sweet side -- to marry with hot Asian foods.

Dan Berger resides in Sonoma County. Berger publishes a weekly newsletter on wine and can be reached at danberger@VintageExperiences.com.