Nov 14, 2025 | Sagrantino, Sonocaia Winery, Sonoma, Sonoma lifestyle, Wine
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The year started like this:
Spring rolled in gently, with winter rains launching a great cover crop (left), and beautiful bunches of berries (right) filling the canopy.
Visitors
Many visitors joined us for farm tours and wine tastings as the summer weather kicked in
Ripening fruit
A long slow summer allowed the fruit to ripen perfectly
Predators
Bobcats (Lynx Rufus) and Coyotes (Canis Latrans) arrived right on schedule to take advantage of the summer boom in rabbits, squirrels, and other rodents
And yellow jackets thrived in the warm weather. We did our best to capture the queens in spring and the colonies all summer long.
Harvest
Harvest begin in mid-October and seemed to be over in flash. 2025 will be a vintage to remember – long slow easy growing conditions, with high quality and high quantity fruit.
Fermentation
We selected a very special yeast source, from Rioja Spain, for this year’s estate Sagrantino fermentation. Dry ice, stainless steel and conrete tanks, and oak barrels all played a roll.
Fresh fruit to press
With superb pristine berries, we completed fermentation in the weeks that followed. And then with the help of many friends we broke out the Mori SS press for the final press step. The resulting deep purple (smoke on the water) grape skins pomace cake was a sight to behold. That cake, and all the stems from harvest, went back into our compost program.
Chicken Pox!
Oh no! Zero errors all year long. And then…on the last barrel…and the last inch of filling…I over-burped the valve to the dogleg and sprayed Dominic in the face with a nice fine mist of ‘Sagrantino chicken pox’.
The vintage concluded in a gorgeous Fall day and an incredible star-lit night.
New baby
A new handsome baby boy, Liam, greeted the 2025 vintage. A future Sagrantino fan in the making?
There’s no “I” in team
Ken and Dom salute the end of the season that was filled with wisdom, learning, sickness, health, the next vintage of wines, and the next generation of winemakers
2021 Sonocaia estate Sagrantino
2022 Sonocaia estate Sagrantino
2021 Dysfunctional Family ‘Double Buffalo’ Red Blend
Recent awards:
Gold, 96 points, Cal State Fair
Gold, 94 points, North Coast Wine Comp.
Gold, 92 points, San Diego Int’l Wine Comp
90 points, Los Angeles Int’l Wine Comp
See you next spring!
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:
Yours truly, Ken Wornick, with chef extraordinaire Landon Schoenfeld of Oak and Acorn Luxury In-home Dining
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
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!
My trusty 2007 BMW R1200RT gets me around to all the vineyard sites we farm.
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:
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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.
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Shipped bees come in a container like this with thousands of bees inside...
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and the queen isolated in this screened holder
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.
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.
…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.
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.
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Narrow and tall, this bat box house is carefully designed...
Placing the bat boxes in just the right location will assure it’s success.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
Apr 14, 2022 | Sonoma wine tasting panel, Dysfunctional Family Winery, Hydeout Sonoma, rain, rosé, Sonoma, Sonoma International Film Festival, Sonoma lifestyle, Wine
This is where I try to convince you to be entertained for a few minutes with little bits of fun from Sonoma –
Blind Tasting: 2013 Napa Valley Cabernets and 2020 Sauvignon Blancs from 5 Countries
Many thanks to friend and colleague, Keith Casale, who helped launch this inaugural tasting event at the Hydeout Sonoma. Also, thanks to Lisa Lavagetto for the delicious catering effort.
Sonoma Int’l Film Festival – 25th Anniversary
Opening night of the 25th anniversary of the Sonoma International Film Festival. Here, in Sonoma’s art deco Sebastiani theatre, artistic director Kevin McNeely interviews the “Lost City” film’s directors, brothers Adam and Aaron Nee. This was the film’s premiere, featuring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum (with a hilarious cameo by Brad Pitt) and the audience were roaring in their seats. One of the very best events in wine country, the festival runs over 5 days, 7 venues, dozens of fantastic films, and endless food and wine.
The new leadership of the Sonoma Int’l Film Festival for the 26th year: L to R, Kevin McNeely (Artistic Director), Bob Berg (Chair of the Board) Jon Curry (Immediately. Past Chair of the Board), Ken Wornick (Vice-Chair of the Board)
Sonoma grapevine bud break – 2022
What a cliché – bud break in wine country. And yet it is truly the annual renewal of life after a welcome and much needed cold rainy winter.
Chickens
New arrivals – over 30 new chicks who will grow up to be egg producers of the team of Dysfunctional Family Chickens
Video – Hydeout Sonoma welcomes a new batch of very cute Dysfunctional Family Chickens
Horses
Five of us from Sonoma rode in the 75th anniversary of the Desert Caballeros horseback ride in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. 100 miles in 5 days, sleeping under the stars at night.
Video: check out this video of 160 horses riding into the Sonoran Desert
Weather
Rain! After two atmospheric rivers in late Fall, it seemed the rain would never return. But in early April, a series of storms rolled through Sonoma. Here, the Hydeout weather station was so shocked by it all, it displayed 10.24 inches rain in an hour. Repairs are in order. But still, rain in any amount is welcome.
Learn about and order our wines here: Dysfunctional Family Winery – rosé and red blends
Nov 27, 2020 | Wine
The launch of Dysfunctional Family Winery:
Exclusively for our blog post readers, in time for the winter holidays, Dysfunctional Family Winery announces the launch of our online presence – providing our blog subscribers with the first opportunity to purchase our wines.
Subscribers are being offered an instant 20% discount on all orders for the holidays. If you are reading this, you are very likely already subscribed!
Ready to shop? Click on this link:
Choose your wines, then enter this code for an instant 20% off: hydeout
The story of the Dysfunctional Family Winery:
It’s a simple premise – “we take our wine seriously, but not ourselves”. For decades we built and farmed vineyards and produced the wines for many noteworthy private clients – from Silicon Valley to Sonoma. From this experience we developed our vision for our winery. And now we invite you to taste our family’s wines, visit our ranch, and feel at home, relaxed, and ready for fun. That’s why we named our winery after all of our wonderful families – happily, humorously, proudly Dysfunctional!
Mock-up created for smartymockups.com
The proposed Dysfunctional Family Winery building:
Hard at work for over three years with engineers and Sonoma County on the permit process, we hope to be under construction soon on our winery building. The plan is to create a modest but state of the art building – where we will produce several wines – our flagship wine an Estate Reserve made primarily from our Umbrian red Sagrantino fruit, blended in with a few percents of estate Syrah, Petite Sirah, and Cabernet, the tasty and affordable Red Blend, the juicy and racy Rosé, and a few specially chosen client wines as well.
Why “Dysfunctional?” In a contrarian twist – it’s not finance. Not strategy. Not Technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage both because it is so powerful and so rare.
Before: the winery building as it sits today, an old 50’s-era barn. Not much to it and sadly not much worth preserving. We did our homework and there just isn’t any historical value. But we’ll be saving as much of the interior wood framing and wood siding as possible. The floor is mostly dirt and broken concrete. The two palm trees in front and the big oak in back will remain.
After: This is the winery engineer’s “artist rendering” of the proposed winery building. A crush pad and large rollup door to the east allows for easy transit of fruit and juice into the building. A small south-facing patio offers views of the Sagrantino vineyard. Winery guests will enter through the opposite end of the building on the west side (not shown here).
Remember: click on this link and use the coupon code ‘hydeout’ for instant 20% savings on all orders.
We look forward to answering your questions about all of our wines. Sometime soon we will invite our customers to visit the new winery and hang out at the ranch and join in our curated event schedules. Sincerely – Ken Wornick and the entire Dysfunctional Family Winery staff.
Sep 18, 2020 | Dysfunctional Family Winery, firefighters, pandemic, smoke taint, Sonoma, virus, Wine
A smoky harvest like no other…
Pandemic, wildfires, smoke, and riots. And who can forget the electromagnetic solar pulse that destroyed the electrical grid! While all this mayhem has been going on, the Sonoma wine industry has been grappling with a grape harvest like no other.
While firefighters fought blazes across the west, growers attempted to protect their employees from the virus with masks, thermometers, and testing while also protecting the valuable grape crop from endless exposure to smoke. The compounds from smoke can settle on the grapes and be metabolized into the fruit through the grape skins. In some wines, the effect will be little to none and the smoke is no cause for worry. In other cases, experts and trained consumers will detect the smoke taint in the wine after 6 months or so. Behind the scenes, most winemakers are saying that the frequency of smoke taint is overblown. We’re just not seeing detectable levels as wines complete fermentation. But no one wants to be caught pressing a narrative that could appear to be self-serving. Click here to read a detailed story on smoke taint from noted SF Chronicle wine writer Esther Mobley and this article by noted chemist Clark Smith.
Here are some photos of Hydeout Sonoma’s first few days of the smoky harvest:
Bringing in the fruit:
We managed to bring in great fruit despite the many challenges, and thankfully most of it looks to be free of smoke taint. But we won’t really know for sure until a few months from now when a) the lab test results are back and b) the wine is safely in barrels.
Processing the fruit:
This time-lapse video link below says it all: Click here for the time lapse video of the winery crush pad. Note that each white bin that arrives and departs represents a half-ton of fruit, equal to about 80 gallons or 35 cases of finished wine. I am standing atop the catwalk at the top of the frame ruling over my loyal subjects.
A 1/2 ton bin of Syrah waiting for the de-stemmer
Surprising news about what wine drinkers care about:
Grape growers and winemakers live and breathe farming and fermentation all year long, and many wine marketers wrongly assume that is what consumers want to hear about. But no, it appears that they are not very interested in how the wine is made or for that matter even how it’s grown. The top three important pieces of information consumers are after are 1) wine type, 2) flavor and taste, and 3) where the wine was produced. I suppose then a word to the wise – no more putting people to sleep droning on and on about farming methods, special blocks, blending trials, oak barrels, and so on.
Dysfunctional Family Winery construction news:
After 3 1/2 years of Sonoma County-required studies for a micro-winery Use Permit, we finally ‘turned some dirt’ and started digging test pits to reconfirm the building foundation requirements.
Excavator operator Jim Rong digging the test pit next to the old barn which will become the winery some day.
Don Whyte from PJC Geotechnical climbs into the test pit to study and report on the soil characteristics. We tossed in a Coors Light and a small dog and said “have fun down there”.
Happy winemaker:
Underway with my 21st vintage. My happy face and the bags under my eyes is a regular gift from the long days of every harvest. That hat on my head, my local gym, well, I haven’t seen the place since March.
Were you perhaps wondering who is this brave firefighter featured at the top of this post? His name is Dennis Wornick, and he is our middle child. He is a wildland firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service ‘Texas Canyon Hotshots’ based in LA. I am not certain where or when this picture was taken, but it was likely either on the Red Salmon Complex fire in or on the Dolan fire in Big Sur; and today his crew went into the Bobcat fire.
