Click on this blog post to enjoy our latest wine awards story

We love heavy metal. Metallica for example. And heavy medals too. Like gold medals.

We enjoyed some medals success in the past month. And we’re sharing our internal winery “white board” summary with you here.

After seven years of managing our estate Sagrantino vineyard, and the most recent four years aging and bottling the 2021 and 2022 Sagrantino vintages, and with 2023 and 2024 Sagrantino aging in oak, we were finally ready to submit some of our wines to the best wine competitions in America. Here are the results:

Click here to order these wines or book a tasting. These wines are available at the winery and online for shipping. If you’ve ever been a customer, you’ll get a nice club discount when you re-order.

Please go here and have a look around: Shop for wine at Sonocaia and Dysfunctional Family Winery.

Visitors – the tasting room has been busy with visitors.

On the left, one of our recent favorites was this family from the east coast. The twin daughters with fantastic careers  – one in New York City working for The New Yorker, the other in Tokyo working for Tokyo Weekender magazine. And their parents were a ton of fun. Thanks Rick, Mikey, Callie, and Blair. They went home with lots of wine, too!

And on the right, our asst. winemaker Dom Smith (of newly launched Domesday Wine) pours wines for some guests from Texas.

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  Family from the east coast

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  and locals too.

Honey Bees

I know we drone  on and on about bees (yes, it’s a pun), but they are so very interesting and productive in our farming environment. We did some hive-dives during the recent hot weather and found mostly excellent conditions and good health. The only bummer – most of our friends have captured wild swarms. We have a trap out. But no luck with wild swarms so far.

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  Frame full of activity

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  and a close up.

Birds

We found this nest on the ground under an oak tree near the vineyard after a very windy day. No idea if it had eggs before it blew out of the tree? Could be a nest for a hummingbird, or possibly a house finch or Dark-Eyed Junco. If anyone knows with certainty, please advise. We’re very curious.

Beautiful day on the farm

A view from the  pool house out to the vineyard and winery. Near perfect spring conditions for grapevine bud break. And another season of farming and growing – vineyard, chickens, olives, fruit trees, bees, veggie beds (full of squash, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and arugula), creek restoration, and a new greenhouse under construction.

Plan a visit or book an event here – rehearsal dinner, birthday, corporate retreat, yoga experience, etc. (but no bachelorette parties or weddings!)

Email us at:

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