May 8, 2025 | Dysfunctional Family Winery, Sagrantino, Sonocaia Winery, Sonoma Farming, Sonoma Valley, Uncategorized
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
Aug 22, 2024 | Dysfunctional Family Winery, Hydeout Sonoma, Sonocaia Winery, Sonoma Farming, Uncategorized
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.
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.
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!)
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
