Two featured Dysfunctional Family Winery red blends

Our Dysfunctional Family 2021 Red Blend also known as the “Double Buffalo” is drinking well right now. It is a deeply colored, medium-bodied, easy-drinking wine, with an all-American blend of 62% Syrah, 24% Zinfandel, 8% Merlot, and 6% Cabernet. Your dinner party guests will enjoy this very approachable wine that drinks nicely all evening long. Plus, the Dysfunctional brand name and “Double Buffalo” iconography make for good conversation. Less than 25 cases remain.

Find it here: Dysfunctional 2021 Red Blend ‘Double Buffalo”

Taking a step back to an older favorite, we have a few cases remaining of this 2018 Red Blend, this one sourced from my colleagues’ 3 small hand-farmed 100% organic vineyards in the heart of Sonoma Valley; for those who prefer a softer version of our annual blend, this is juicy wine with a smooth plush texture, soft red fruit, and silky tannins – looks like Cab (65%), tastes more like a fat Syrah (23%), and finishes like a Pinot (9% Cab Franc and 3% Merlot). Let it breathe a bit, then enjoy with it salmon, or lightly smoked/barbecued/roasted food.  It is aged for 20 months in a mix of French and American oak. Less than 12 cases remain.
 
Find it here: Dysfunctional 2018 Red Blend

Click here to have a look at the rest of our wines here, including our 100% estate Sagrantino, rosé, and many red blends

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

News from the Hydeout farm and around the Sonoma Valley

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.

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. Buy your passes here: SIFF.   Also, mark your calendars for SIFF’s next monthly Tuesday night feature, “Giants Rising”, “the secrets and superpowers of the Redwoods”, and winner of more than six film festival awards, at 7:00pm on September 17th at the Sebastiani Theatre on Sonoma Plaza.

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  Roger Rhoten, a very well known and popular figure in Sonoma, manages the Sebastiani Theater. And leads the Sebastiani Foundation. He curates an endless array of fun films and shows all year long.

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  Ginny Krieger is an equally well known and popular figure in Sonoma, as executive director of the Sonoma International Film Festival, seem here introducing a Tuesday night movie

Hot Air ballooning in Sonoma Valley

Your adventure begins the moment you arrive at the Sonoma Skypark in Sonoma.  You’ll want to allow at least 3-4 hours in total for this unique outdoor adventure. The first image is looking up at the balloons from the Hydeout pool deck. The 2nd image was of the Hydeout farm and Sonocaia winery, taken from the ballon. You can see a portion of the vineyard at lower right, the winery at far right. The last image is also looking out over the pool deck ten minutes later. They were moving very fast despite looking like the balloon wasn’t moving at all.

Sonoma City Party

On August 1st, the Sonoma City Council and the City of Sonoma presented the 27th Annual Sonoma City Party. The City of Sonoma hosts this annual party to bring our community together for fun, festivities, and to celebrate our vibrant community. A long-standing tradition, this unique event celebrates the rich history of Sonoma, its residents, businesses, and non-profits. The event is free to attend and concludes with a raucous band and dancing as the sun sets.

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  Sonoma City Hall

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  Crowd is building

Zucchini races on the Sonoma Plaza

Sonoma hosts a fabulous farmer’s market  on the Sonoma Plaza every Tuesday evening all summer long. On August 20th, instead of music, they held the hilarious, energetic, and wild zucchini races. Adults and kids alike entered. The track was swarmed by screaming participants. The world briefly stopped spinning on it’s axis as the gate fell and the utterly ridiculous zucchini’s raced, rolled, and toppled over the track. Click here to watch a very brief Zuchini race movie

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: “Oreo” is available for adoption (we already have 2 adult roosters which is twice what we need or want!)

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  New summer chicks

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  ...ten weeks later

Doing good in Sonoma – Impact 100

We hosted the entire board of Impact 100 here at the Sonocaia winery. It is our pleasure to support the local non-profits.  Impact 100 Sonoma is a women’s philanthropic organization founded in 2009 to support the vital services and programs of nonprofits serving our community. By working together and pooling our resources, we’re helping to build a just and thriving Sonoma Valley.

Last, a bit of humor

Not meant to be political, and you could probably take this either way, left, right, or otherwise, but it still made for a good and slightly ashamed laugh…

Next up…

Harvesting our Sonocaia Sagrantino. The 2024 harvest is just around the corner. This week, brix (sugar readings) were in the 17-19 range. I am hoping to push the harvest out as late as possible as Sagrantino’s thick skin loves a long growing season. And coffee-colored seeds and refined tannins are way more important than sugar water measurements. But as always, the weather will be ultimately in charge.

Warmly, Ken