Ken Wornick

The Winemaker

Simplicity. Quality. Craftsmanship

Raised in Massachusetts, Texas, and California, Ken began his career as a geologist for the Bechtel Corporation in San Francisco, often amongst the first to arrive at job sites – power plant construction in Georgia, coal exploration in Alaska, hazardous waste cleanup at the Love Canal Superfund site, and nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain. After graduate business school, Ken pursued a career in various food and beverage roles while studying and working in grapes and wine.As an emerging entrepreneur, Ken was amongst the first to offer private vineyard development services to Silicon Valley clients through the founding of his first company, Post & Trellis Vineyards (see map below left, 39 vineyards under management). Soon thereafter, Ken constructed one of the first commercial urban wineries in the Bay Area, making his client’s wines at the dedicated facility in Redwood City, and named La Honda Winery (see image below right, tour event). Both firms are still in operation today.

Ken sold both companies and moved full time to Sonoma, acquiring the 11-acre Hydeout Sonocaia farm. He returned to building vineyards, farming grapes, and making wine for Sonoma-based client land owners under the Hydeout Sonoma name (see image bottom, 19 vineyards under management). After ten years, this company was also sold.

Ken has since built and opened a new winery at the Hydeout farm, called Sonocaia. The family has painstakingly developed the farm, first cleaning the site of debris, eradicating invasive weeds, and adding the vineyard and winery, followed by chickens, bees, olives, raised beds, solar power, all while working to recover and secure the open grassland and creeks from over-use. Ken’s full-time occupation remains managing the ranch, growing grapes, and making the Sonocaia estate reserve Sagrantino.