Mar 27, 2025 | Dysfunctional Family Winery, Sagrantino, Sonocaia Winery, Sonoma Valley, Uncategorized
SONOCAIA WINS MULTIPLE WINE COMPETITION AWARDS IN SAN FRANCISCO, SAN DIEGO, AND LOS ANGELES, PLUS A PROFESSIONAL JAPANESE SAKE TASTING AND THE SONOMA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – CLICK ON THE POST TO SEE IT ALL
Sonocaia and Dysfunctional Family Winery win prestigious wine competition awards
- 97 Points – Los Angeles Invitational Wine Challenge – “notes of black licorice, cocoa bean, with a sensuous mouth feel, a classic.” We’ve held onto some cases of this wine as a library release. Aged two years on oak and five years in bottle. Blend of Cabernet, Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Merlot. This older but great annual version of our Red Blend is sourced from special boutique vineyards farmed by our wine industry friends around Sonoma Valley and Sonoma Mountain.To order, click here.
- 90 Points – Los Angeles Invitational Wine Challenge – This newer 2021 vintage is soft and fruity but carries the body and weight into a long finish. A terrific food-friendly wine, especially great with pizza, burgers, and BBQ. Super silky and so easy to drink. Pinot fans seem to love this wine. A blend of Syrah, Zin, Merlot, and Cabernet. To order, click here.
Our flagship red wine, and second vintage from 7 year old vines, 100% organic, from our estate Sagrantino vineyard. Transports you directly to Umbria, Italy, the home of Sagrantino. A rare find in California, this varietal is relatively unknown in the new world but is now sparking major curiosity and accolades from both the casual traveller and the serious wine critic.. To order, click here.
- Gold 92 points – San Diego Invitational Wine and Spirits Challenge
- Award – San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition
Navigate here to see the above award winners and our entire lineup of wines
PROFESSIONAL JAPANESE SAKE TASTING
For our monthly professional wine tasting program, we normally choose a specific category of wine, such as 90’s Sonoma Mountain Cabernets, For this outing, we selected eight Japanese Sake’s. We found that the sake’s had an amazing range of aromas and flavors, perhaps more even than grape wine. That was a fascinating outcome. Check out the images and notes for a sense of how it went:
That’s a wrap! The 2025 Sonoma International Film Festival was a spectacular success. Five days of films across five venues, plus nighttime parties, and the new pop-in sip and bites program at many wonderful plaza restaurants. Sonocaia and Dysfunctional Family Winery poured our wines at the sold-out Marcella Hazan “Italian Dinner” Culinary event. And we poured at the KHR McNeely Family Fund party and the SIFF Film Industry Mixer, both at the VIP tent. It was a five-day extravaganza of film, food, and wine.
Final thoughts:
Here’s a fun flashback to some older blog post images…
Feb 18, 2025 | Dysfunctional Family Winery, Hydeout Sonoma, Sonocaia Winery, Sonoma lifestyle, Uncategorized
STORIES. NEWS. EXPERIENCES. TASTINGS. AWARDS. HERE’S A SHORT FUN WINTER READ AS THE DAYS START TO GET LONGER. CLICK TO VIEW THE FULL VERSION OF THIS POST:
True Cellar Gems: Old California Pinot Noir wine tasting, from 2006 through 2009
Our regular professional winemaker’s tasting group travelled north ‘up valley’ to the Emmitt-Scorsone Winery in Healdsburg to taste cellar gems from Emmitt Palmer and Michael Scorsone’s private cellars. The winery was recently relocated adjacent to the Russian River as you enter Healdsburg from the south to north.
The wines are all bagged, numbered, and tasted completely blind.
All wines are poured in advance and carefully tracked. All wines are tasted in complete silence. For real. No talking until all wines are tasted and notes written out.
The big reveal. Much applause. These were very noteworthy brand names competing for our praise.
My personal favorite before the voting was complete. The reveal turned out that I had voted for Boheme 2007 as my top wine. And I was sitting right next to Boheme winemaker Kurt Beitler the whole time! We had a good laugh. We had not met before. That was a good surprise and fun for us both.
THE RESULTS – all scoring while still blind
Most “Favorited” Wines by Hand Count:
- 2008 Williams Selyem – Precious Mountain Vineyard, Sonoma Coast
- 1400 feet ridge top elevation, clay loam, bi lateral, very low yield of 1 ton/acre, short shoots, solid brick, forest floor and moss, racy and well built, pine, mint, cherry.
- 2006 Copain – Monument Tree Vineyard, Anderson Valley
- 300 feet elevation, decomposed sand stone and shale, dijon clones, sunny am, shade in pm, light ruby, ruby core with orange rim, soft mouth feel, shorter finish, modest glycerin, slightly oxidized but still compelling, tobacco, pine, good mid palette acid, blackberry,
- 2007 Bohème – Stuller Vineyard, Sonoma Coast.
- 1200 feet elevation, in the redwoods, yorkville clay loam, rocky, 115 and 667, medium brick, darkest wine in grouping, strong strawberry, fresh and youthful, mulberry, butter, light smoke, fresh, clean, very well made.
- 2009 Sea Smoke – Southing, Santa Rita Hills
- 500 feet elevation, clay loam, 777 and 667, highly buckled terrain, 55% new oak, med brick, clean and clear, jammy fruit, rustic tannins, rose petal, tar, tea bag, baking spice, saffron.
- 2008 Kosta Browne – Sonoma Coast
- Gaps Crown, Terra de Promissio, and Walala, 45% new oak, bottle 1 vs bottle 2?
- 1) good bottle – vanilla spice, dried stone fruit, integrated tannins, campfire, dry soil, cigar, fresh, lively, compelling
- 2) suspect bottle – slightly browned, poss corked, closed and funky
- 2008 Kosta Browne – Russian River
- multiple wide ranging vineyard sources, at least 8 diff vineyards, 45% new oak, light to ruby red, spicy red fruit core, cherry cola to black cherry, stone fruit, nice round mid palette, bit of lingering heat, truffle, stone, mushroom.
Overall Mathematical Ratings:
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(2.63) 2009 Sea Smoke – Southing, Santa Rita Hills
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(2.53) 2008 Kosta Browne – Russian River Valley
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(2.4) 2007 Bohème – Stuller Vineyard, Sonoma Coast (magnum)
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(2.4) 2006 Copain – Monument Tree Vineyard, Anderson Valley (magnum)
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(1.97) 2007 Papapietro Perry – 777 Clones, Russian River Valley (magnum)
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(1.93) 2008 Williams Selyem – Precious Mountain Vineyard, Sonoma Coast
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(1.8) 2007 Peter Michael – Le Moulin Rouge, Pisoni Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands (magnum)
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(1.67*) 2008 Kosta Browne – Sonoma Coast (* ~half of the group seems to have tasted an off/flawed bottle)
Our wine lineup in February
We recently won awards in the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition and the San Diego International Wine Challenge. With more award announcements coming soon.
Our current lineup of Sonocaia estate reserve Sagrantino and Dysfunctional Family Red Blends and Rosés. Want some? You know how to find us!
The cover crop in the Sagrantino vineyard is stunning and popping right on time. We’re a no-till, fully organic, no chemical operation. This cover crop will simply be mowed back into the ground come spring, just prior to bud break.
Lifestyle event with Euphoria and AB Creations – Yoga, Sound Healing, and Wine Tasting
This is the site of the Yoga day retreat on Saturday May 3rd, the Hydeout Farm at Sonocaia Winery
Dec 17, 2024 | Dysfunctional Family Winery, Sagrantino, Sonocaia, Sonocaia Estate, Sonocaia Winery
A look back at 100 blog posts, moments from life in Sonoma wine country
Let’s take a step back in time. But first…the wine business is suffering from over-supply, cost inflation, and Gen Z’ers hunger for canabanoids and canned cocktails. But that doesn’t stop us at from enjoying the best that Sonoma wine country can pour out of 750ml glass bottles. Here at the Swiss Hotel back room, I marvel at my colleagues ability to consume their own products!
Sometimes the drinking is purely social and maybe even gets a little out of hand (above). But just as often, we’re focussed on seriously judging our work and the work of our colleagues. Below, a blind tasting of 10-year old Sonoma Valley reds.
Join us as we reflect on over 100 blog posts over 7 years emailed to over 2000 subscribers, like you.
I embarked on the idea of this blog post as a way to communicate with each of you – as we set about developing the 11-acre Hydeout Farm. I was careful not to do too much selling. I was and still am interested in building a following and having dialogue – yes, about grapes and wine for sure; but also bees and honey, chickens and eggs, vegetable and fruit tree gardening, creek restoration, alternative energy, compost, travel, and the non-profits in Sonoma town.
I’ve selected my personal favorite blog posts for republishing. I would be pleased if you would scroll through them and relive your favorites with me. And please send me a note with your thoughts:
June, 2017 – the very first post announcing the launch of this blog.
Welcome to the Hydeout Sonoma vineyard and wine blog
Feb, 2019 – Celebrating 20+ years of winemaking
Celebrating 20 vintages from the Santa Cruz Mtns. to the Sonoma Valley
September, 2020 – FIRE !
The smoky grape harvest of Sonoma 2020
October, 2022 – traveling to Montefalco, Umbria where Sagrantino grows
Umbria and Sonoma – Sagrantino, Food, and Motorcycles
March 2020 – Wildlife (in the time of Corona Virus)
Sonoma Farm Life (in the time of Corona Virus)
December, 2021 – RAIN!
Rain in Sonoma, finally…
June, 2017 – it was a backyard music party
1st annual wine and music party Hydeout Sonoma 2017
December, 2018 – Hope for the future
Hope for the future of wine and food
January, 2024 – a review of 2023
A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey
A 2018 post about the wine industry convention held every year in Sacramento
Wine Industry Convention
June, 2018 – Farming organically
Farming Sonoma vineyards organically
And there’s still time in 2024 to shop for wine!
Sonocaia wine lineup – DYS 2021 “Double Buffalo” Red Blend, DYS 2017 Red Blend, Sonocaia estate reserve 2021, Sonocaia estate reserve 2022, estate olive oil, apple grappa
Shop Our Wines
Winemaker Ken
Nov 12, 2024 | Dysfunctional Family Winery, Sagrantino, Sonocaia Winery, Sonoma Valley, Uncategorized
Pre-holiday sale of Sonocaia and Dysfunctional Family wines
with a great discount only for subscribers
Enter discount code FF20 at check out for the Friends and Family 20% off all of our wines. Good only via this blog post.
Pick up at the winery or ship it to your address
Have a look below at the special and quite delicious wines we are featuring today. As most of you know, we are a small boutique winery at the intersection of Sonoma Valley and Carneros, just south of Gunlach-Bundshu and Scribe wineries. Our approach to both farming and winemaking is very hands on. We produce only between 150 to 200 cases of each wine. This equates to just 1-2 tons of each cuveé, allowing us to literally do everything carefully by hand, with our eyes and senses judiciously managing each lot every day all year long, from farming to harvest to barrel to bottle. The result are wines that each come with a great story, an interesting provenance, and are genuinely true to their terroir. And therefore fun to drink. Please dive in…
2022 Estate Reserve Sagrantino
Pre-release allocation only to blog post subscribers like you. This just-bottled 2022 vintage is a truly epic red wine; deep and dark in color, with ample tannins, a long finish and great acidity. We are very excited about this vintage. It is the result of literally years of effort in the vineyard and winery. Originating with the importation of Sagrantino grapevines from Montefalco Umbria in 2016. Aged two years on oak. This wine is made for dining on a cold winter night. It will cut through the meanest turkey gravy your momma ever made!
Click here to order: 2022 Sonocaia Estate Reserve Sagrantino
2021 Estate Reserve Sagrantino
After years of carefully farming our estate Sagrantino, this inaugural 2021 vintage is rich and smooth and very food friendly, like Sagrantino should be. As it was the very first vintage, it is a bit softer and more approachable compared to the blockbuster 2022 we just bottled, above. This wine will go very well with baked turkey, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie! Suggestion – try this in place of your go-to Thanksgiving Pinot Noir.
2021 Dysfunctional Family Winery “Double Buffalo” Red Blend
The “Double Buffalo” 2021 Dysfunctional Family ‘Red Blend’ was sourced as always from four of our friend’s special boutique organic vineyards around Sonoma Valley. This vintage is soft and fruity and really easy to drink, but carries some body and weight into a long finish. A terrific food-friendly wine, especially great with pizza, burgers, and BBQ. And, this is a great wine to match with Thanksgiving leftovers! Blend is 62% Syrah, 24% Zin, 8% Merlot, and 6% Cabernet.
2017 Dysfunctional Family Winery ‘Red Blend’, Library Selection
Driven primarily by structured hillside Cabernet Sauvignon and inky Petite Sirah, this wine is dark, rich, and weighty, and yet is also easy to drink – owing to both perfect bottle age and the addition of small amounts of smooth Syrah and jammy Merlot. Aged 2 years on a mix of new and neutral oak, then aged an additional 5 years in bottle. It is perfect and ready to drink right now.
We are re-releasing this library wine just for the holidays. I recently snuck this bottle into a blind tasting with some very well known and expensive red wines. The team was a collection of local Sonoma growers and vintners who have tasted many delicious wines. And they were so moved that they each bought a case. Get yourself some while it lasts.
2020 Dysfunctional Family Winery Rosé
Just 7 cases left in the whole wine world! If you love Rosé for Thanksgiving, and many have that tradition…made in the ‘saigneé style’ – meaning ‘bleeding off’ the unfermented pink grape juice from the full tank of fresh grapes, then cold fermented in stainless steel and quickly racked back to neutral oak barrels for settling; all resulting in a wine that is dark pink in color, crisp, and fruit forward. Drink well chilled, and don’t be afraid to put an ice-cube right into your glass like we do. Chill and open this wine for your family and guests to set the perfect festive mood.
Part of the Sonocaia and Dysfunctional Family winery lineup. You and your family and your guests will enjoy having these wines on your holiday table.
Enter discount code FF20 at check out for Friends and Family 20% off of all our wines. Good only via this blog post. Order today to receive by Thanksgiving.
News and flash backs:
November 2023 – just one year ago, the grand opening of Sonocaia estate winery
December 2023 – gathering with friends and colleagues over too many wines, in the private dining room at the Swiss Hotel on the Sonoma Plaza
Ken and Cynthia pouring Sonocaia at the 2024 Vintner’s Festival. This is one of the major events put on every year by the Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Association. The SVVGA has a great board of directors and staff. The team is superb at featuring the beautiful and authentic wines of Sonoma.
Some informative reading about Sagrantino, polyphenols, and tannins, just fancy words for color and flavor:
Next post coming in December – a trip back in time across 100 blog posts, and a chance to sit back and scroll through images and news from across the world of wine over the past few years.
A winter corporate event at our Redwood City winery, in 2003; one of the first urban wineries in the bay area, and the genesis of our entry into the wine business over 20 years ago.
Oct 9, 2024 | Dysfunctional Family Winery, Hydeout Sonoma, Sagrantino, Sonocaia Winery, Sonoma lifestyle, Sonoma Valley, Uncategorized
Enjoy this pictorial journey of Fall in the Sonoma Valley
From our sun-soaked vineyard to the bustling crush pad, immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of the Sonocaia Estate Winery in the Sonoma Valley. Explore the heart of California wine country and savor every moment of the season.
With our 2022 vintage, we reached the promised land having created a Sagrantino wine with superb color, great depth, structure, and varietal distinction. It’s simply a gorgeous wine that goes so very well with grilled beef, rich pastas, and aged cheese. And the most perfect match of all – mushroom risotto!
Bottling the 2022 vintage
The finished product – vintage 2022 Sonocaia estate reserve Sagrantino. The first truly representative example of our almost decade-long effort to replicate Umbrian Montefalco Sagrantino in the Sonoma Valley.
The bottling crew
Valley of the Moon “Vintage Festival” – Grand Tasting Event
We poured our recently bottled 2022 Sonocaia Sagrantino estate reserve and the 2021 Dysfunctional Family ‘Double Buffalo” wine at the Valley of the Moon “Grand Tasting” event at the Barracks on the Sonoma Plaza. A really large audience crowded around our tasting table for three hours, a wonderful surprise given that we were literally surrounded by much larger and more famous wineries.
The Grand Tasting inspired a big crowd from around the country
Lead by Executive Director, Robyn Sebastiani (2nd from right), the entire Vallay of the Moon “Vintage Festival” staff made the event a great success.
Valley of the Moon “Vintage Festival” – Harvest Dinner and Auction Event
Celebrating 200 years of Sonoma Valley wine and farming, we donated a monster 6 Liter Methuselah of the 2017 Red Blend – 32% Cabernet, 29% Petite Sirah, 25% Syrah, and 14% Merlot, all from 100% organic, 100% Sonoma Valley vineyards, and 100% grown, produced, and bottled by our company.
Valley of the Moon “Vintage Festival” – Grape Stomp
As a large audience roared with encouragement (from a significant distance), 2-person teams raced each other to stomp ten pounds of grapes and produce a winning volume of liquid, and happily got themselves and the judges covered in red grape juice in the process
This was the winning team’s submission. And the stomping was much harder than it looked, even for the energetic youngsters.
Recent visitors to the Sonocaia estate
These are a few of the photos of various visitors to the winery, very random and with instructions to “just act natural.” They were all very good at following instructions.
Vintage 2024 – harvest prep
Sanitation and equipment checks are a constant at the winery. And especially at the start of harvest. Even more so when your assistant winemaker, Dominic Smith, also of Domesday wines, shows up with a new ultra-sleek, super-gentle, and very expensive Italian must pump.
A brief pause for some fun on the Sonoma Plaza
The Sonoma Plaza has an all-summer-long Tuesday night Farmer’s Market. It always attracts a large audience, especially when the food trucks and the music make the scene.
A grand rodeo at the Wing and Barrel Ranch in Carneros
The most incredibly all-American and patriotic event of the year in Sonoma, other than Fourth of July, our hosts Christine and Jon Curry of Landers Curry (famed Sonoma home builder and interior designer) served us ample cold beverages, provided perfect seats to view the parachute, barrel racing, and bull riding (and it should be called bull falling), followed by an hours-long BBQ. The right way to prep for harvest.
Watching, waiting, tick tock, and finally, it’s go-time for the harvest
It’s a bit nerve-racking and daunting to work to diligently farm a vineyard and then put your head on the pillow every night in October and say to yourself “should I pick…now?” The decision will affect the quality and features of that vintage for years to come – in barrel, in bottle, and on your dinner table. But the decision must be made. And so in my view you make it fearlessly and without hesitation.
5:00am, the sky is dark, the air is perfectly cool, the tractor lights are glowing, it’s time, let’s do this.
The team is psyched for the final bin as the sun begins to set on a long day, and the mighty Kubota tractor keeps on chugging
Wait, did you wash those feet?
Funny? Yes. But not a joke. Mike and Dom dropped the last 20% of this fruit into the bin as ‘whole clusters’ (stems on) and foot-tread the fruit. Truly, the most gentle and really pretty compelling way to very softly break up the berry skins without cracking the seeds. Works really well on smaller lots of 1-2 tons. Not so much on 100 tons!
Final thoughts
With all the wines quietly fermenting in the winery, we’re now busy with punchdowns and pumpovers 2-4 times every day for the next month. Then, it will be time to press that wine into barrels. And then eat some turkey and mashed potatoes.
But meanwhile…wait for it…Acorns! Just like clockwork, as the last grapes are harvested, the oak trees start dropping acorns. And I start yet another year of passionately collecting them for the baby oak tree nursery.
And from the Hydeout gardens, a payoff of amazing Fall potatoes
Warmest regards to you each for a fantastic, cold, rainy, quiet, and peaceful winter
Next post – a review of the over 100 blogs posted here since June 2017
Happy tourists in their hot air balloons grace the early morning October skies over the Hydeout Farm and Sonocaia Winery
Sep 18, 2024 | Dysfunctional Family Winery, Hydeout Sonoma, Sonocaia Winery, Sonoma Farming
Rosé sale. 20% off. For the last hot days of summer.
Just 7 cases remaining. Who wants some?
Cellar find! We found 7 perfectly pristine cases of 2020 Rosé hiding in plain sight. Our beautifully aged rosé is made in the French saignée style, meaning ‘to bleed.’ Most rosé is made by going straight into the press when the fruit when arrives at the winery. That approach often results in a light cotton candy colored wine, with little to no tannin but nice fresh fruit. In the saignée style, the red grapes are first processed into a fermentation tank. Then some liquid that has sat ‘on the skins’ is ‘bled off’ and then fermented as a rosé. What remains in the tank becomes a more concentrated dark red wine. And the resulting rosé in this approach is a darker red, slightly more tannic, slightly crisper, and is thus actually age-worthy vino. And that is what we’re offering here. Aged 4 years in bottle in the winery cellar. Pristine condition. We recommend drinking it ice-cold on the last of the hot summer days still ahead.
Rose sale! 20% off instantly. Because you are a subscriber to this blog, you are automatically in our “friends and family” discount program! When you order, for UPS shipping or pick up at the winery, enter this discount code for an instant 20% off: FF20
Click here to have a look at the rest of our wines, including our Sonocaia 100% estate Sagrantino and our Dysfunctional Family red blends
What I did on my summer vacation (only because some subscribers asked)…
Dear Teacher, bottling and harvest starts this week with work in the winery likely lasting through Thanksgiving. So we jumped on the motorcycle for our summer vacation. This year, we rode to the Canadian Rockies and back. Thousands of miles. 3,508 miles to be exact. The ride took us through Kalispell Montana, crossed into Canada, headed north to Edmonton (and went to the Metallica 72 Seasons concert) then rode back to Calgary and met up with nine friends on their moto bikes, rode west to Vancouver via Banff, Revelstoke, and Whistler/Blackcomb, then turned back east to Kamloops and Kelowna, and then finally headed south to home – via Yakima, Bend, and Klamath Falls. It was an epic adventure full of great roads, wildlife, hiking, food and drink. And a very important new cultural discovery – Hawkins Cheezies, a corn meal and cheese snack far superior to all other cheesy puffs! Not kidding. Have a look.
Metallica at the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Click here if you need to bang your head – Wherever I May Roam, oh come and click it, even if you don’t like metal, you’ll enjoy the buzz!
Motorcycle riding through the spectacular Canadian Rockies from Calgary to Vancouver and back with our riding group from Florida, South Dakota, Arizona, and NorCal
Hiking the Rockies
The famed Canadian bar “drink-in-meal”, called the Giant Bloody Caesar. What the heck is this you may ask? It’s a monster Bloody Mary, plus two giant loaded sliders, a few fried zucchini sticks, some veggies, and a lot of napkins, it just goes on and on…
The famed Hawkins Cheezies, which we discovered on a fuel stop. Don’t laugh. Like no other cheesy puff you have ever had. For real. Super crunchy and cheesy. Made from corn meal, not wheat. Available only in Canada. And as it turns out, you can get em from a supplier via Amazon.
Oh, so this is where Cynthia gets her superpower!
3,508 miles, and the bike and us safely back home in time for bottling and harvest
In the next blog post…
- Bottling the 2022 vintage of Sonocaia Sagrantino.
- Racking the 2023 vintage of Sonocaia Sagrantino.
- Harvesting the Sonocaia Sagrantino. The 2024 harvest is now just around the corner. This week, brix (sugar readings) were in the 24.3 range. Shoots are lignifying. Seeds are turning coffee colored. I am hoping to push the harvest out as late as possible as Sagrantino’s thick skin loves a long growing season. And the refined tannins are way more important than sugar water measurements. But as always, the weather will be ultimately in charge.
- And soon, a full report on a new professional colleagues wine tasting event we’re launching here at Sonocaia
Warmly, Ken
P.S. – The Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers is hosting their annual Vintage Fest. Click on this link to see the entire schedule, buy tickets, bid on auction items. Sonocaia and Dysfunctional will be pouring at the Plaza Barracks on Saturday eve, Sept 28th, at 6:00pm.
But wait, there’s more…
Sonoma International Film Festival
27 years of the best in film, food, wine, and fun – it all starts up again on March 19-23, 2025. Four days of amazing film, food, wine, and parties. It’s an all-walking film festival around the Sonoma Plaza. Feature films, docs, animation. Buy your passes starting on October 1st: Purchase tickets here for SIFF. This week’s SIFF’s monthly film featured “Giants Rising”, “the secrets and superpowers of the Redwoods”, and winner of more than six film festival awards, at the Sebastiani Theatre on Sonoma Plaza. Sold out crowd. Great film. See images below.
SIFF Executive Director, Ginny Kreiger, introducing the film, Giants Rising
Director Emeritus, Kevin McNeely (left) doing a great job with the Q&A after the screening of Giants Rising.
Sonoma Farmer’s Market
At one of the last Tuesday night Farmer’s Markets of the year, where a Doors tribute band rocked the Sonoma plaza. And we dined al fresco with friends. And drinking Dysfunctional vino.
Bobcats
Wildlife is a constant presence here at the Hydeout Farm. It constantly ebbs and flows as rapidly-reproducing animals at the bottom of the food chain (like mice and rabbits and squirrels) get consumed by apex predators who are higher on the food chain. Two weeks ago, a pregnant Bobcat appeared, and then a week later, two baby Bobcats showed up. It’s been interesting to observe how rapidly the population of rabbits and squirrels drops off – whether they are eaten, relocate elsewhere for safety, or both. Even the raucous and very pack-like black crows have vanished.
Red Tail Hawks and Cooper Hawks
Life is dangerous for the apex predators too, but in different ways. In this first image, a Red Tail Hawk adult stretched its wing near some power lines, causing an electrical arc and sadly, the hawk exploded with 7000 amps of juice. I found its severed foot at the bottom of the power pole. Very impressive claw! One week later, an adult Coopers Hawk was training a fledgling to hunt. But sadly, it hit something… maybe misjudged a tree, and broke a wing. We found the young hawk sitting in the driveway looking dazed. When we approached slowly, it just fell over. We collected the hawk into a box and drove it up to the Santa Rose “Wild Bird Rescue.” We’re waiting on news of its recovery, and hope to repatriate the fledging bird back to its home soon.
Sustainable vineyard farming practices
Our Sonocaia and Dysfunctional Family wines are 100% organic. We do our best to balance old world methods with modern science. We never use toxic chemicals of any kind; after all, we live on this land, eat the food, and drink the water. As the grapes ripen, wild birds and other animals positively lose their minds on the sugary grapes. One of the best deterrents is to install bright reflective tape in the vine rows. As the breeze blows and the tape shimmers, little blasts of confusing bright light reflect out in a kaleidoscope fashion. The streaky light makes the birds nervous. It’s not perfect, they do learn to overcome their fear. But hopefully we minimize damage to the fruit we’ve worked so hard to grow over the previous 9 months. I like to say we’ll keep 4 acres for the humans and the wild life can have the other 7 undeveloped open acres.
New Rooster and chicks
Some weeks ago, 20 new baby chicks arrived from the nursery. And just 10 shorts weeks later, they are ready to be introduced to the adult population. In this first photo, you see the chicks just as they arrived, little baseball-sized fluff balls. In the second image, it becomes quickly obvious that one of the babies was incorrectly sexed at the nursery and is in fact not an egg-laying hen, but a rowdy teenage rooster. Note: “Slim” is available for adoption (we already have 2 adult roosters which is twice what we need or want!)
