Grand Opening of Sonocaia Estate – Sold Out

Oct 6, 2023 | Sagrantino, Sonocaia, Sonocaia Estate Vineyard, Sonocaia grand opening, Sonocaia Winery, Sonoma Farming, Sonoma wine tasting panel

All three days sold out!

Please keep an eye on this blog post channel for future Sonocaia events

sunrise on Sonocaia - Grand Opening of Sonocaia Estate - Sold Out

All of us at Sonocaia thank you, our long-time winery customers and blog post readers, for the support of this passion project. We’ll see you in November for the grand opening wine events. And keep an eye out for other fun event announcements coming soon.

Current ranch news:

Grape harvest – the 2023 harvest is running late all over wine country, and the same is true for our estate Sagrantino. As everyone knows so well, we had a very wet winter, finally; and a rather slow and cool-ish summer. We’re pushing harvest out as far as possible to coax the last critical flavors from the fruit. Right now, with this mini-heat wave, looks like harvest will be around October 12th.

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Sagrantino from the estate vineyard ripening perfectly in October 2023

Prickly pear margaritas – the cactus flowers have ripened and we’re once again enjoying prickly pear margaritas. The process is time-consuming, but well worth it. It’s a treat to enjoy the incredible color, flavor, powerful anti-oxidants…and the chance to enjoy some Mescal cocktails as the sun sets and the color of the sky matches the drinks.

Hens and Eggs – as the weather cools, the hens have started to molt, meaning they are dropping summer feathers in favor of warmer winter plumage. The energy required for this change causes egg production to dip.

The Pleasures of Farming – Fall is such a great time to harvest the fruit of so much summer labor. Here, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, and peppers fill the kitchen. Soon enough, the cold and rains will come and we’ll sit by the fire, eating and riding from this bounty, while the gardens enjoy a well deserved rest.

Honey harvest – this year’s harvest of honey was kept modest as we want the newest hives (Mann Lake, Bee Kind, and Ranger’s Wild Swarm) are left with ample reserves for the bees to over-winter. One hive got a bit out of control with honey comb built outside the “follower boards” and that was the portion that we harvested.

Thanks again!

Warmly from Sonocaia

Ken and Cynthia

P.S. This just in

Our little town of Sonoma has an incredible number of non-profits serving many needs in our community. Last night, we attended thhe gala for the Sonoma Community Center. Dear friends Simon and Kimberly Blattner, stalwarts of our non-profit community, were honored as the 2023 Sonoma Community Center “Muse.”

And in the foreground of this photo, members of the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, and equally worthy Sonoma non-profit.

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2023 Sonoma Community Center “Muse” Gala

Grand Opening Invitation to Sonocaia!

Sep 26, 2023 | Sagrantino, Sonocaia, Sonocaia Estate Vineyard, Sonocaia grand opening, Sonocaia Winery, Sonoma Farming, Sonoma wine tasting panel

Announcing the grand opening event of Sonocaia estate vineyard and winery

sunrise on Sonocaia - Grand Opening Invitation to Sonocaia!

Join us for a delicious wine and food experience at our new Sonoma estate, Sonocaia (So-No-Kai-Yah). As one of our loyal Hydeout and Dysfunctional blog post readers, you get first shot to this event. Tickets will sell quickly. Three dates to choose from: Nov 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

Ticketed reservations are required. Seating is very limited. Your ticket includes our inaugural 2021 estate reserve Sagrantino, plus new and current releases, older library wines, and curated charcuterie. All set in our new winery.

Instructions: Click on the link, choose ONE of three dates, select number of tickets (max of 2) then ‘Add to Cart’ and proceed through checkout.

Sonocaia’s Inaugural Launch Event – click here for tickets

If you are unable to purchase tickets, that means the date is already sold out. Please try another date. Or email us at

in**@so******.com

. We will be keeping a first-come first-served waiting list. Special discounts for wines purchased at the tasting will be automatically affilliated with your ticket.

Sonocaia’s Inaugural Launch Event – click here for tickets

About Sagrantino: Our estate grown Sagrantino is a boutique-scale effort and one of only three wineries in the entire United States dedicated this variety. The Sonocaia Sagrantino is a traditionally-made deep red wine that transports tasters to the hills of Montefalco, Umbia, Italy. A rare find in California, this varietal is relatively unknown in the new world and is sparking curiosity from both the casual traveller and the serious wine critic. We have painstakingly cultivated this highly regarded Italian varietal with meticulous sustainable farming. The resulting wine makes a bold but very approachable statement. Think of Cabernet or Petite Sirah in complexity and structure, but with the body and finish of a softer wine. The nose offers enticing aromas of red and black fruits, dark chocolate, cedar, earth, savory herbs, and a touch of oak spice. On the palate the wine shows a rich, full body with a lovely, long-lasting finish. These features make Sagrantino a wine that will last nicely throughout an entire meal.

Sonocaia’s Inaugural Launch Event – click here for tickets

To learn more about our estate Sagrantino, click here

To read about all of our wines, click here

Pronounce it like this: SO-NO-KI-YAH SAG-RAN-TEEN-OH

We look forward to seeing you in November…

Ken and Cyn - Grand Opening Invitation to Sonocaia!

Ken and Cynthia in the new Sonocaia winery back in late winter of 2022 as construction is completed and oak barrels are moved in.

Sonocaia – your invitation to the newest estate winery in Sonoma Valley

Jul 8, 2023 | Sagrantino, Sonocaia, Sonocaia Estate, Sonocaia Estate Vineyard, Sonocaia Winery, Sonoma Farming, Sonoma Valley

Coming soon – your invitation to the newest boutique winery in the Sonoma Valley

You are currently a subscriber to our about-to-launch Sonocaia Winery (you’ve known us for years as Hydeout Sonoma and Dysfunctional Family)

And you are first in line for an invitation! Keep an eye out for subsequent emails like this for your invitation.

If you are seeing this in an email directly from Ken or in social media, you are likely NOT on our list. Please click this link: Sonocaia and scroll to the bottom of that page and provide your email address. You’ll be added automatically to the invitation list.

Seven years in the making – the Sagrantino estate vineyard and the Sonocaia Winery:

Do you love a dark red wine that you can enjoy all the way through an entire meal, from the cheese plate to burgers to tiramisu?

If yes, then our Sonocaia Estate Reserve Sagrantino is for you. Our Sagrantino targets the middle of the famed enticing wine triangle:

Pinot Noir (smooth and easy to drink but often without much body or length)
Cabernet (jammy and full bodied, but often hot and tiresome after a glass or two)
Petite Sirah (inky dark and spicy, but often rough and tannic).

We’re one of just a few Sagrantino growers in the entire country, and our rare Estate Reserve Sagrantino sits squarely in the middle of the triangle – offering great juiciness and body and tannins, and yet is somehow easy to enjoy over the course of an entire meal. Especially when cellar-aged for a few years!

How do you pronounce Sonocaia Sagrantino?

Say it out loud: So-No-Kai-Yah Sag-Ran-Teen-Oh

Sagrantino is capable of producing wines of awesome power and grace, yet was on the verge of extinction just 30 years ago. Even now, less than 2500 acres of Sagrantino exist worldwide!

A small group of elite growers in Montefalco, Umbria, Italy realized what they had and brought Sagrantino forward to the modern wine world. And the world took notice. In 2018, Worth Magazine noted that Sagrantino was poised for “a huge breakout in the wine world.” Last October, the “World of Fine Wine” wrote about the miracle of Montefalco Sagrantino. Wine Spectator raved about Sagrantiono saying this: Wine Spectator. And SF Chronicle Wine Competition issued eight medals to Sagrantino in 2022.

What started the Sonocaia project? Our fascination with Sagrantino began twenty years ago. Like so many great wine memories, ours began over a spectacular Italian dinner in San Francisco in 2003 where this famed Paolo Bea Sagrantino Pagliaro was served.

The wine was dark and juicy and bold, and yet fit beautifully with food and was easy to drink glass after glass. We committed to someday grow this variety and build a following around it. Thus began our very passionate inquiry into Sagrantino and what ultimately lead us to dedicate ourselves to this extraordinary variety in Sonoma!

Sonocaia planted 2 acres of estate Sagrantino vines in 2016. The vines travelled from Italy to UC Davis to the nursery and finally to us. We also inter-planted tiny fractions of Cabernet, Petite Sarah, Primitivo, and Tannat in order to lengthen and smooth Sagrantino’s famed bold tannins.
The vineyard has been farmed by hand, 100% organically, with year-long careful attention to detail.
During the first two years of purposefully light yields in 2018 and 2019, we harvested some small amounts of the Sagrantino fruit and blended it with other red varieties from neighboring vineyards under the Dysfunctional Family Winery ‘black label’ brand. Want to be an early adopter of these wines? For sale now on the website, 85 cases of the 2019, and 38 cases of the 2018 remain, click here to shop for the 2018 and 2019 Dysfunctional Family Estate Reserve ‘black label’ wines. We can ship to you. Or you can pick up at the winery. Use this code at checkout for an instant 20% discount: FF20
2020 was a wildfire year, no Estate Reserve Sagrantino was produced. Instead we harvested early and produced 28 cases of saignee’ rose’ (also under the Dysfunctional label). Click here to shop for the rose’. We can ship to you. Or you can pick up at the winery. Use this code at checkout for an instant 20% discount: FF20
The Sonocaia Estate Reserve Sagrantino yielded spectacular fruit in 2021 and 2022. Those first two full vintages of Estate Reserve Sagrantino are now aging beautifully in barrels in the new winery. Vintage 2021 to be released next year to mailing list members and wine club members only.
With the return of winter rains, the 2023 crop is also looking over-the-top exciting (see photo below)..
And after four years, winery construction is now complete and we are very close to opening!

We’ll be holding a series of small tasting visits soon for you, our subscribers. Come be a part of the fun. You get the first shot at reservations. Keep an eye out for subsequent emails for your invitation:

Where is Sonocaia:

We like to call it the “Far East” of Sonoma town. We’re a few minutes east of the Sonoma Plaza, and less than a minute east of the Vineburg Deli (which is at the corner 8th Street East and Napa Road). We’re in the Hyde-Burndale neighborhood just south across Napa Road from Gundlach-Bundshu and Scribe wineries:

This week at Sonocaia. The summer flowers are hitting their peak. Please enjoy:

Final note – new chicks arriving in the hen house

Even in a protected setting like our hen house, apex predators manage to eat a chicken on occasion. So they must be replaced. A wonderful neighborhood kid is hatching her own chicks and selling them to neighbors. We picked up 10 new chicks last week and have them growing in their separate screened cattle trough – until they are big enough to introduce to the main population.

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Ten baby chicks under the warmth of the heat lamp

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Our adorable neighborhood chicken whisperer

Projects and day trips from Hydeout Sonoma (Part 2)

Jun 7, 2023 | Dysfunctional Family Winery, Hydeout Sonoma, Sagrantino, Sonoma, Sonoma Farming, Sonoma lifestyle, Sonoma Valley, Vineyard, Wine

Part 2 of farming and wine life in the Sonoma Valley…

Honey Bees and a National Park Ranger Talk on the Light Spectrum

Honey bees being a constant topic here at the Hydeout, what a great surprise to find a recent national park ranger talk on the color perception of bees! Turns out, honey bees see further out than humans on the light spectrum – which is why they can more easily find nectar in flowers. And why they don’t really like the color black.

Honey bees (cont’d)

Here are some more images of our work last week in the honey bees hives:

American Graffiti in Petaluma

This year marked the 50th year since George Lucas’ coming-of-age movie American Graffiti was released on the silver screen. Cruisin’ the Boulevard showcased hundreds of American model cars 1972 or older who joined in the annual parade of classic American cars cruising through the streets of downtown Petaluma where most of the movie was filmed in the summer of 1972. The best place to watch was along Petaluma Boulevard, south of B Street to D Street.

Fire

Sad to say we’ve had two fires already in our lovely Hyde-Burndale neighborhood. The first was a grass fire from some untimely afternoon high grass mowing. Our local neighbors with a water truck beat the firefighters to the scene (due to a faulty address) and had the fire out quickly.

The second, was a structure fire right across the street from us. The awesome and very local Schell-Vista Fire Dept arrived, followed closely by Cal-Fire, and that fire was also put out quickly. Hopefully the last of this fire business for the year.

Meal Fit for a King

Hosted by noted Napa vintner John Boich of Boich Cellars, we enjoyed an incredible food and wine event at their Wall Road vineyard (where we are farming Cabernet and Syrah for Boich). Check out the menu below for each of these incredible dishes:

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Yours truly, Ken Wornick, with chef extraordinaire Landon Schoenfeld of Oak and Acorn Luxury In-home Dining

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The Boich Cellars menu from Oak and Acorn Luxury In-Home Dining. Find them at 612-618-5909,

oa***************@gm***.com

Wildlife

After a very wet winter, wildlife activity is booming around Sonoma and at the Hydeout. These images, shot by professional photographer Michael Hodgson, Sony Pro photographer & travel journalist, at www.michaelhodgsonphoto.com and

mi*****@hi***********.com

Snake!

This is first time ever finding a snake at the Hydeout. Snakes, especially rattle snakes are super common up in the hills around Sonoma. Down here in the almost-flats, we have very few to zero rattlers. This snake however is actually a common gopher snake that was leisurely crossing the driveway. I grabbed it, put it in a bucket, and took it straight out the vineyard where it very quickly disappeared down a gopher hole – to my very great delight!

Cork from Ganau, it’s Italian for cork

Our primary supplier of cork is Ganau, a local Sonoma company run by terrific people. In this video, you can see a natural product, cork, being naturally branded by fire. Click here to watch a 30-second video of cork being fire-branded at the Ganau plant

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Fire branded and ink branded corks

Final thought…

Fun night at the Big Easy in Petaluma seeing Illegitimate AC/DC. Fronted by my buddies Bob Taylor (as Angus, center, guitar) and James Marshall Berry (right, on bass). They rocked hard all night long. Bob and James are also an integral part of KSVY Sonoma, our local radio station. I was a guest on Bob’s The Morning Show last week – check it out here: listen to Ken Wornick on the KSVY Morning Show

Next up – watch for a big announcement!

moto in vineyard - Projects and day trips from Hydeout Sonoma (Part 2)

My trusty 2007 BMW R1200RT gets me around to all the vineyard sites we farm.

Farm projects at Hydeout Sonoma

May 14, 2023 | Dysfunctional Family Winery, Hydeout Sonoma, Sonoma, Sonoma Farming, Sonoma lifestyle, Sonoma Valley, Vineyard, Wine

Olives, honey bees, chickens, bats, owls, farmer’s market, and wine…the list of farm projects at Hydeout Sonoma is growing every day. I think you’ll enjoy following along:

Olives and the dreaded fruit fly

The olive fruit fly is ubiquitous now in wine country. Perhaps due to the sheer number of olive trees, or the years of drought, and/or so many olive trees in residential yards that receive zero pest management. But there are several 100% organic and cost effective methods to control the olive fruit fly. See the photo captions:

as seen here

Honey bee project

We currently have three honey bee hives here at the Hydeout – one hive from a captured wild swarm, one hive from Bee Kind bees in Sebastopol, and one hive from Mann Lake bees.

Shipped bees come in a container like this with thousands of bees inside...
and the queen isolated in this screened holder

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Chere Pafford, the acknowledged expert and queen bee of many bee hives in the Sonoma Hyde-Burndale neighborhood, here displays a large drone bee (no stinger!)

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Here, some hive comb that the bees were building in the ‘wrong place’ in the hive. Had to remove it before they got to far. It is important to guide them to build comb only in the frames – where we can later expand or contract the hive as needed when food becomes short and cold weather sets in.

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This comb will soon become a beeswax candle – with guidance from great friend and bee expert Nic Freedman of Bees Rock Ranch in Petaluma

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The miracle of perfect geometry in the world of honey bees.

Chickens

The Hydeout Sonoma chickens are shifting their energy to egg production as the summer sun warms their environment. Contact Cynthia if you’re interested in eggs.

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…and this fresh egg frittata is the result!

Tuesday Farmer’s Market on Sonoma Plaza

Neighbor and friend Lori Murray of Lola Sonoma Farms is an expert in pasture-raised 100% organic heritage “Kune Kune” pork resulting in very clean healthy meat. And a great sense of humor too.

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Lori carefully not blocking traffic at the Tuesday Night Farmer’s Market on Sonoma Plaza and showing off her tasty organic pork treat which was widely shared with all within reach.

Bats

Bats are one of the most important and totally misunderstood animals. We are crazy for bats and are encouraging their place here at the Hydeout. Bats are a critical interstitial species (see this link: more about bats). And are a crucial and fully organic living tool in wine country integrated pest management. Bats can eat 1,000 or more mosquitos and insects per night! It is so great that we finally had a very wet winter. But pools of standing of water have created a haven for insects of all kinds. And bats help keep things under control.

Narrow and tall, this bat box house is carefully designed...

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Placing the bat boxes in just the right location will assure it’s success.

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This paddle cactus is providing an incredible place for birds to find water, but is also growing mosquito larvae.

Grape Vines

Weather, gophers, rabbits, water – the pressure on vineyards and grapevines is painfully constant. Even in a small vineyard of just a few acres, it is not unusual to lose 30 or 40 vines per year. Like everything else in farming, it is important to constantly replace the losses with new vines, so that the vineyard is always maintained at peek performance.

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New grapevines from the nursery which have been fully acclimated and are ready to be planted.

Sonocaia – our new winery here at Hydeout Sonoma

Many of you are aware of our multi-year project to launch our “estate reserve” Sagrantino wine. The new name associated with our Sagrantino based wine is “Sonocaia” (pronounced So-No-Kaī-Yah).

Coming this spring with the first invitations going to our blog post readers like you – the grand release of our first Sonocaia (So-No-Kī-Yah) Estate Reserve Sagrantino. Never heard of the Sagrantino grape? It produces a deep dark delicious red wine, originally from Monte Falco, Umbria…and now from the Sonoma Valley c/o Hydeout Sonoma. More on this soon with a new winery, label, website, and more.

See this chart for some astounding information on this little-known grape variety:

Sagrantino - Farm projects at Hydeout Sonoma

Wine tasting with clients

Faith Armstrong and I routinely meet with our Forward Vines and Wines clients – to taste wine from barrels and bottle samples. We taste not only the wine we’ve made for our clients, but often many other local wines – as a guide to client preferences, i.e. color, acidity, tannin, alcohol, blending, etc. Here we are in the Sonoma Mountain AVA tasting several local Chardonnays.

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Mowing the fence line

What could be better than a Sunday afternoon on the tractor mowing the fence line? For a walking path, a dog run, and especially access and fire prevention, mowing the fence line should be done early and often.

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Moonrise at the Hydeout

A rising full moon at the Hydeout, or anywhere in Sonoma Valley, the “Valley of the Moon,” is a wonderful and heartwarming event.

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Spanish Priorat wine tasting, wild swarm of honey bees, and motorcycling through Morocco

Apr 13, 2023 | Dysfunctional Family Winery, Sagrantino, Sonoma, Sonoma Farming

Blind tasting modern Spanish Priorat

Another fascinating tasting with preeminent host Don Sebastiani at the Swiss Hotel on Sonoma Plaza.

Priorat is in Catalona (Catalunya), a region immediately south west of Barcelona, and directly west of Tarragona. It is rough and rugged in the extreme. For most of its wine history, it was a scenic but otherwise nondescript place with dull brownish wines. Then, big Spanish wine money started pouring into Priorat in the 1990’s. And now the wines are uniformly modern and new world with swanky stylish labels. Most are made with blends of Garnacha (Grenache) and Cariñena (Carignane). This tasting was a real shocker to all of us as the wines were quite fresh and vibrant, with some evident terroir, and somewhat reasonably priced as well. And all available now at the Bottle Barn in Santa Rose.

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We started the tasting blind; this is an image after the tasting of the 8-bottle lineup, as it turned out organized by age of vines and vintage.

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You can see these wine are all deeply colored, on the core and rim as well. No flaws, no VA, all clean and fresh.

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Part of the team of winemakers and media chatting about how to approach this tasting.

Installing a wild swarm of bees into a new hive box at the Hydeout

Good friend and beekeeper Nic Freedman from Bees Rock Ranch in Petaluma passed this wild swarm on to us for one of our new hive boxes.

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This swarm was caught in a swarm trap using lemon grass oil as bait. These bees may have been wild. Or, they could have been a hive splitting from one of Nic’s overwintering hives (which itself started as a swarm last year).

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How do you transfer bees? Just carefully lift each “frame’ from the swarm box and place it in the new hive box. There are some rules about how fast to move, alignment of boxes, location of the hive, and so forth. Like most things, easy on the surface but complicated when confronting the number of decisions and various opinions on just about everything from various beekeepers.

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About 15 minutes after transfer into the new hive box; the bees are flying out, around, and back into the new hive to figure out where they are, developing navigation cues, and so forth.

Myself, Nic, and friend and neighbor John Boich, all in our suits and observing the newly installed swarm at the Hydeout.

Motorcycling through Morocco

Just before bud break in our Sonocaia Sagrantino vineyard at the Hydeout, we had a chance to ride our BMW R1200RT through Morocco. We started in Malaga Spain, took the ferry south across the strait Gibralter, and then road through Chefchouan, Fez, the Atlas Mountains, the Sahara Desert, Dades, Marrakech, and Rabat. Lots to report about the geography, food, music, religion, politics, and so forth.