(SonomaNews) - It’s not many a Sonoma man who can claim to have been devoured by hungry alligators – and that’s not what he’s best remembered for.

But such is the case of Agoston Haraszthy or, rather, the self-proclaimed “Count” of Buena Vista Winery, the 158-year-old wine estate on Old Sonoma Road, whose well-documented rescue in 2011 by Jean-Charles Boisset from a two-decade dormancy resurrected not only one of California’s greatest locations for wine, but also one of its greatest locations for wine legend.

And, indeed, wine showmanship. For, as bold as Buena Vista’s 2012 Attilla Zin is, Buena Vista’s 2015 storytelling is even bolder.

From winery tours conducted by an actor in full-on “Count” persona (Sonoma favorite George Webber) to the undeniable influence of larger-than-life Jean-Charles Boisset himself, Buena Vista could very well be paving the way for a new paradigm in wineries: the tasting/history/virtual reality/off-off-off-Broadway theater experience.

The latest in BV’s vintnertainment offerings is the new Historical Wine Tool Museum, which pairs delicate pinot gris with a “light, sound and visual show” tracing the development of pomace cutters and vine pullers through the years.

But the 20-minute “tool experience” is much more than a historic overview of the phylloxera scourge of the 1870s. It’s arguably – and this is no exaggeration – one of the two most enjoyable wine-tool exhibits the world has ever known.

The Buena Vista display is housed in its vast third-story exhibition hall, where a stately 30-foot-long banquet table (bring your friends!) sits in eloquence, surrounded by an array of tool sets – spread along the walls of the room in order of their chronological place in the wine-making process. Views of the tools are accented by colorful lighting schemes, mechanical moving parts and looping sound effects – think the Country Bears Jamboree, if Liver Lips McGrowl, et al, were replaced by a Hungarian winemaker and lots of pruning shears.

In each corner of the room, video feeds relate the story of Buena Vista Winery and the wine tools that made it great – a tale narrated by the Count himself (George Webber, again) in all the scenery-chewing glory one can inhabit when discussing the finer points of grafting pest-resistant rootstock.

It’s as campy as all get out.