Sep 9, 2018 | Wine
On a gorgeous Sonoma evening, Dysfunctional Family Winery made its official and exceptionally grand public debut. The town mayor sang the star bangled banner (no, she did not). The Wine Spectator immediately awarded 100-points and declared it the ‘wine of the century’ (never gonna happen). And the Blue Angels did a super-sonic fly over (somewhere, but not here). Assisted by our rare and precious vineyard dog, Mr. Ploofy, (actually, we don’t have a dog) and our spectacularly gorgeous family (too ‘busy’ to attend), we proudly introduced our multi-generational (um, no) and outrageously expensive cult wine (hardly) to an adoring crowd (well, yeah, maybe).
The occasion was the outdoor nighttime screening at Hydeout Sonoma of Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz” (The Band, 1976).
The venue was donated by me, Ken Wornick, (I am the winemaker) and the co-owner of the Hydeout, along with my immediate supervisor (otherwise known as my wife, Cynthia, who is on the board of the film festival). You can learn just how very fascinated we our with ourselves here:
https://www.hydeoutsonoma.com/about/
The event was presented by the Sonoma International Film Festival to a large crowd that spilled out over the lawn with chairs, blankets, and jackets. Everyone sang along (for real) with Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton, and many others.
And everyone enjoyed many superb and well known wines from around Sonoma, each of whom generously support the film festival.
Executive Director of the film festival, Kevin McNeely, welcomed everyone, thanked the volunteers and hosts, chatted up the debut of the Dysfunctional Family Winery 2016 Red Blend, and introduced the film screening.
By the end of the evening, the night’s supply of Dysfunctional Family Winery 2016 Red Blend was exhausted.
During the evening, wine and movie lovers enjoyed food from the well-known Sonoma food truck institution, El Coyote.
During a brief pause in the film, everyone dug into their tacos and burritos, and when the movie re-started, hoots and hollers were heard echoing across the lawn.
Another good time at the Hydeout. And a welcome start for the Dysfunctional Family Winery.
About the wine: Dysfunctional Family Winery’s 2016 “Red Blend” – Made of equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon (from Sonoma Mountain), Sangiovese (from Moon Mountain), Zinfandel (from Bennett Valley), and Merlot (from Carneros), the grapes were de-stemmed (but not crushed) and the whole berries were frozen-Nitrogen cold-soaked for three days, then fermentation was allowed to proceeded rapidly for 2 weeks, then the wine was pressed off fairly hard, and barreled up in a 50/50 mix of once-used French and American oak for 20 months; the wine is dark and inky, with a plush texture and evident fruit, but with soft tannins, and is meant to drink now. $25/bottle.
About the label: The photograph is an original shot circa 2006 by Dennis Wornick using a Kodak “FunSaver” instamatic camera, in the Tenderloin neighborhood of SF, and obtained this image of an actor walking outside from his theatre practice and captured standing in front of the ‘dysfunctional family’ window display.
Links:
http://www.hydeoutsonoma.com
http://www.sonomafilmfest.org
https://www.yelp.com/biz/el-coyote-sonoma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2yW372qWH8
Please read closely: Dysfunctional Family wines are only available to the public at an off-site tasting room location (per Federal, State, Local, Deep State, State Department, and Bureau of Intensive Governent Meddling in Citizens Private Affairs laws, regulations, and don’t jump into the bathtub with an electrified toaster consumer protection statutes). We hope someday that this wine will be available for sale at the Hydeout (pending a permit currently under consideration at the Sonoma County Permit and Resource Management Department).
If you are interested in becoming a customer, please email us directly at
kw******@sp*****.com
Jul 8, 2018 | Sonoma, Vineyard, Wine
Hydeout Sonoma has many wonderful clients. Our New York-based clients, owners of the Sovare label, came into town to taste their 2017 vintage. Sovare is an estate hillside vineyard near Sonoma Mountain comprising equal percentages of Cabernet, Sangiovese, and Zinfandel.
Hydeout Sonoma took over management of the vineyard in 2015. At that time the vineyard was not in good shape. After a lot of dedicated attention, this is the vineyard as of July 2018:
And here is a pictorial essay of Sovare’s visit to the Arcana Winery custom crush facility where Hydeout Sonoma makes the Sovare wine:
Using a wine thief, I am pulling equal sample volumes from these barrel and blending into wine glasses ‘on the fly.’
Almost ready with equal parts from several different barrels:
The moment of truth, tasting the 2017 vintage.
Discussion follows, how much more time in the barrel, in what way is the 2017different from 2016, what wood to use in 2018, and so on.
And more discussion…
And more discussion…
Having settled on the key next steps fro 2017 and 2018, now we need to decide where to go for lunch! We ended up at El Dorado Kitchen on the square for some al fresco dining.
This is the first Sovare vintage, from 2016:
Jun 10, 2018 | Sonoma, Vineyard, Wine
Farming Sonoma vineyards organically is expensive and time consuming. And it makes the wine more expensive too. Why?
One of the biggest risks to vineyards around the globe is mold and mildew. Mildew spores over-winter in dormant cane buds and under bark. For season-long control, the vineyards must be sprayed. But with what?
Traditional farming deploys an array of chemicals to knock down mold and mildew. Examples include Tebuconazole, Triflumixole, and Quinoxyfen. To be effective, during the growing season chemicals like these will be sprayed on every inch of every grapevine roughly every 21 days.
Organic choices are more limited, and less effective, and sometimes more expensive too. And they must be applied every 10-14 days. Over the course of an entire growing season, that means 3-5 more trips through the vineyard with the driver, tractor, and sprayer, and nearly twice the total chemical cost. If you owned vineyards and you’re livelihood depended on growing and selling perfect grapes, which path would you choose?
At Hydeout Sonoma, we are sustainable always, and organic whenever possible. And our clients happily (or grudgingly) pay the extra costs – knowing their kids and pets can safely play in the vineyard and (the adults) can safely drink the wine.
In May, most grapes will look like this…
Those same grapes grapes will look like this by late summer…
but left untreated, by Fall those grapes will look like this, ruined…
Mold and mildew must prevented early and all season (until the grapes start to color up or turn red, called verasion). Once you have it, no amount of irrigation or spraying will get you out of mildew trouble.
An uninformed person might drive past one of our organic spray programs and get pretty nervous hearing all the noise and seeing the chemical fog. This is what fully organic spraying can look like from a distance…
organic spray by tractor
And up close…
organic spray by tractor close up
This week, we are spraying a combination of 3 organic products, all approved by OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute).
OMRI is a non-profit that supports organic integrity by developing clear information and guidance about materials, so that producers know which products are appropriate for organic operations.
https://www.omri.org
- Sulfur 80: it’s just like what it sounds, basically naturally occurring sulfur in mineral form all crushed up, and then pulverized so that it will go into dispersable suspension with water,
- Sonata: is a bio-fungicide with live bacteria spores that induce plants’ natural defenses to resist disease development and anti-fungal compounds that have contact fungicidal activity.
- Syl-coat: is a nonionic surfactant which has been specifically designed to enhance the efficacy of pesticides. It is particularly effective when used with water-soluble mildewcides.
Along with managing organic pesticides, vineyard irrigation management is an equal challenge. Here is one sample image of how I manage our client’s vineyard irrigation from my cell phone.
See more Hydeout Sonoma blog entries at: https://www.hydeoutsonoma.com/welcome-to-the-hydeout-sonoma-blog/
May 30, 2018 | Wine
You love wine.
But maybe you never gave much thought to the science of wine?
Here is a post that reveals some science behind wine…
The preeminent magazine for wine professionals is Wine Business Monthly, headquartered in Sonoma. Last week, I attended their “Innovation and Quality” wine conference at Silverado Resort – which entertained and informed.
Click on this link to go the magazine’s home page: https://www.winebusiness.com
Several really exciting ‘wine tasting trials’ were presented. In this photo you can see the scale of the tasting about to start in the ballroom.
First up, famed Italian wine family Antinori presented a comprehensive Cabernet tasting from their vineyards from around the world.
CEO Renzo Cotarella presented. I found him eminently entertaining. He commented “chemistry deconstructs, tasting reconstructs” – meaning chemistry can tell you a good deal about the fractional bits in wine, but only a human being can make the ultimate choice about wine quality. When asked who makes the final blending decisions, he answered, ‘winemaking is not a democracy, someone needs to own the wine’s identity.’
The Antinori tasting (seen below) included Tignanello, Col Solare, Antica, Guado al Tasso, and Haras:
Extensive laboratory testing and results were a major part of the conference. Cara Morrison from Sonoma-Cutrer introduced the audience of 200 wine industry professionals to the world of “phenolics” – what the rest of the world knows as ‘color’ and ‘tannins’. And if you insist on the deeper chemistry – compounds including phenolic acids, stilbenoids, flavonols, dihydroflavonols, anthocyanins, flavanol monomers (catechins) and flavanol polymers (proanthocyanidins)
This trial focusing on phenols included lab data from wines from Merryvale and Wente.
Greg Gambetta, Professor of viticulture at Bordeaux Sciences Agro (graduate school), provided a terrific presentation about phenolics, including this slide showing how a controlled deficit in Nitrogen at Chateau Haut-Brion lead to higher anthocyanin – meaning more color, tannin, and flavonoids.
In the third trial, we tasted wines from 4 different wineries from around the west – with the ONLY difference being hand picked versus machine harvested fruit. I have personally been a strong proponent of machine harvesting ever since witnessing the process in Clarksburg, Ca. over a decade ago. Since then, the machines have markedly improved resulting in exceptional fruit quality, very little broken stems and leaves, and a very speedy and cost effective way to get large amounts of fruit to winery fast and in good shape.
Click on this chart below to see the ‘side by side’ chemistry of hand harvested fruit vs. mechanically harvested fruit:
There was also a presentation on smoke taint. Particularly following up from the October 2017 fires in Sonoma and Napa. The chemistry of smoke taint in wine is complicated. And so far, many have tried, but none have really found a way to remove the smoke once it has entered the vineyard and into the skins of the raw fruit.
See these links for more on the wines presented at the trials:
Sequoia Grove: http://www.sequoiagrove.com
Ramey: http://www.rameywine.com
Mondavi: https://www.robertmondaviwinery.com
Sonoma-Cutrer: https://www.sonomacutrer.com
Merryvale: https://www.merryvale.com
Wente: https://wentevineyards.com
Coppola: https://www.francisfordcoppolawinery.com
Chateau St. Michelle: https://www.ste-michelle.com
Montinore: https://www.montinore.com
Silverado Resort was, as always, perfect: https://www.silveradoresort.com
May 14, 2018 | Wine
On May 23rd and 24th, Wine Business Monthly will be hosting their one-of-a-kind forum for ultra premium wineries focused on Innovations that Advance Wine Quality. Located at the Silverado Resort, the industry’s foremost wineries and researchers will be gathering to share insights and data…
To review the entire schedule including speakers, sessions, research, and tastings, click here:
http://www.winebusinessiq.com/attendees/#session-overview
To register, click here:
http://www.winebusinessiq.com/attendees/#ticket-options
There will be some incredibly insightful topics presented including…
- A Comprehensive Interpretation of Cabernet: The Marchesi Antinori Perspective
- How to Fall in Love with Phenolics and Keep the Relationship Fresh
- The Evolving Role of Oxygen in Fermentation Processes and Why Should We Care?
- Does Mechanical Harvesting Provide Superior Grapes?
And these wine tasting trials:
And for those of you who cannot attend, or are not in the industry but enjoy wine, I think you will find a cruise through the web pages of Wine Business Monthly to be fascinating and informative:
https://www.winebusiness.com/wbm/
Passes are available to the personnel and proprietors of wineries, grape growers and vineyard management companies.
See you there!
Ken Wornick, Hydeout Sonoma Consulting
May 6, 2018 | Wine
My motorcycle buddy and all-around renaissance man, Nicholas Freedman, hosted a very special lunch and ‘bee hive dive’ at his east-Petaluma ranch, benefiting the Sonoma Academy. Many bee experts, aficionados, interested parties, and Sonoma Academy supporters enjoyed a wonderful day of food and learning…
Nick’s ranch on Hardin Lane in the hills east of Petaluma – once ranched by General Vallejo, there is evidence on the moss-covered rocks of Chinese workers from the 1800’s, a small farmhouse was built in the 1920’s, later it was part of a 100-acre chicken ranch that failed when Hardin died, and in the 1950’s the Rocca family built the main house and ran cattle for 70 years. Now in Nick’s hands, he is slowly bringing the buildings and grounds back to life, including the 1840-1880 chicken coops.
The view from Nick’s Ranch looking west toward Petaluma.
When we first got going, it was a bit foggy and cold that Sunday morning and the mostly Sonoma Academy crowd was just waking up. But the “Bees Knees” cocktails (recipe follows here) was one of the best we all had in a long time, just delicious, and then the sun came out…
Bees Knee’s Cocktail – gin, lemon juice, honey syrup
After brunch, our host Nick switched from Bees Knees cocktails to Bee’s Knee’s Rose’ and delivered a fascinating history on wine country bees, various sources of bees (both good and not so good), their diet, risks to the hives, and stories about catching wild swarms. If you see a wild swarm, click here:
Saving a wild swarm of bees
And report a swarm here: http://www.sonomabees.org/report-a-swarm/
Nick also wanted you all to see this amazing story of a local Petaluma bee keeper…
http://www.petaluma360.com/entertainment/5804041-181/beekeeping-gives-blind-petaluma-woman
Christine Kurtz, the renowned “Petaluma Bee Lady” gave us an in-depth seminar on bee behavior and bee keeping. Sadly, she later reported having to euthanize some of her hives because of vandalism. What an outrage.
Contact Christine here:
pe*************@ya***.com
Then John McGinnis jumped in. His place is just uphill from Nick’s, is called ‘Goah Way Ranch’ and his company, ‘Buzz Off Honey’, and John hand-produces quite exquisite custom bee hives as seen above.
https://www.goahwayranch.com
For all things Sonoma Bee related, click here: http://www.sonomabees.org
Then it was time to suit up…
And ‘dive’ into the hives…
Some of the grading and plantings that keep the bees happy…
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Nick pumps some water from his natural surface aquifer to build up the garden flora.
And is resurrecting old walls and beds.
My new best friend, Nicole Abate Ducarroz, active Sonoma community member, champion for education and public schools, long-standing board member of Sonoma Academy, and past president of the Sonoma Valley School Board.
Thanks for reading. Please share this blog with your friends. Ken
