Sonoma’s Dysfunctional Family Winery launches online
Did you miss our new winery launch online last week? The discount is still available... Sonoma's Dysfunctional Family Winery announces the launch of our online presence - subscribers and followers...
Dysfunctional Family Winery launches online
Dysfunctional Family Winery announces the launch of our online presence - subscribers and followers receive a special discount! For the holidays, subscribers and followers receive an instant 20%...
Sonoma 2020 grape harvest finally winds down as red flag weather warnings continue…
Another grape harvest in the books. 22 vintages for me. And what a vintage 2020 has been. The winery established a 'no visitor' employees-only policy, so no client visits this season. We've all been...
The smoky grape harvest of Sonoma 2020
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...
Wine label press check, Dysfunctional Family chickens, egg frittata, fresh tacos and recipes, sourdough, art, NorCal fires, and walnut slabs…
Iconic Sebastiani vineyards returning to glory…
Dysfunctional Family Winery: Shelter in Place Delivery
What can a winemaker do to ease the shelter in place burden? Hand deliver wine, of course. Members of our growing 'Dysfunctional Family' wine community receive their bottles of wine, sometimes in a...
Sonoma Farm Life (in the time of Corona Virus)
Vineyard pruning in March
Gardening
Rescuing a downed Red Tail Hawk, sadly this story doesn’t end well…
Willow
…
Organic vs. Conventional Farming
Organic grape and wine farming: Thanks to the support from all of our Hydeout Sonoma vineyard clients, we are a 100% organic farming operation. As the debate continued, I invite you to take an...
Dysfunctional Family Chickens
Here at the Hydeout, we have many projects going on around the property.The latest addition being a chicken coop! Many friends in Sonoma have backyard chicken coops and we thought it would be great...
Wine Country in the Fall: Grape Harvest & Olive Oil
The last ton of grapes is safely in the winery, and in celebration of the end of the 2019 harvest Hydeout Sonoma hosted a BBQ lunch for the whole hard-working winery team. The joke is that 'it takes...
Hydeout Sonoma and Dysfunctional Family Winery grape harvest 2019 wraps up…
Update: This is a video from the Hydeout Sonoma ranch cam at 4 AM Sunday night, October 27th, just before the power went out. This blog post below was intended to be a celebration of this year‘s...
Sonoma Barn Owls and social tidbits…
Sonoma Barn Owls and social tidbits...we've lost many grapevines, three years in a row, to damaging gophers. The gopher population is out of whack. Hard to say why? Maybe not enough snakes? We don't...
Announcing two new Sonoma cinematic events with music, food, and wine…
Two terrific Sonoma movie events for your calendar: On Sept 20th at 6:30pm at the Hydeout Sonoma ranch, benefiting the Sonoma Int'l Film Festival, enjoy an outdoor under-the-stars showing of...
Before harvest, let’s bottle some wine…
As the clock clicks down to another harvest, it's time to make some room in the winery. Here are a series of short videos and time lapses of our most recent bottling of Dysfunctional Family 2017...
You’re interrupting my Sonoma summer…for this?
I will soon be sharing images of the re-construction of an iconic Cabernet vineyard in the next blog post. But while we wait for the newly planted vines to grow, please enjoy this short sampling......
Ganau…it’s Italian for cork!
For over 20 vintages, I have been a loyal customer of Ganau America, a cork company based in Italy, with natural cork sourced from Sardinia and Portugal. Join me on a pictorial journey through their...
2019 wine grape season is (almost) a nightmare so far…
Update - May 29th, 2019 - Republishing this blog post with more current information - the rain is over, the sun has arrived, and the vineyards have dried out enough to rush labor and tractors into...
Hydeout Sonoma in documentary at Sonoma International Film Festival
Very excited to make this 'world premier' announcement...for almost a year, famed documentary filmmaker Joe Daniel followed over a dozen Sonoma hobby grape growers and home winemakers through the...
Celebrating 20 vintages from the Santa Cruz Mtns. to the Sonoma Valley
As I happily enter my 20th wine vintage (1999-2019), please join me for a quick look back... What started in 1999 as a small vineyard development company (Post and Trellis Vineyards in Burlingame,...
Hope for the future of wine and food
From my view on the Advisory Board of the Sonoma Valley High School Agri-Tech Academy, I get a first-row seat to watch some of our best and brightest explore their love of farming and plan for their...
Sonoma Harvest 2018 – Part 2 “The Day”
Sonoma Harvest, Part 1, "The Night" featured some harvests at night. As the sun rose and fruit was loaded onto the trucks, here are some daytime images of a few of our client's harvests. And check...
Sonoma Harvest 2018 – Part 1 “The Night”
Here is your Sunday Morning just before brunch wine podcast. While you were sleeping, Sonoma Valley was hard at work harvesting wine grapes at night. You might ask, "hey Ken, what's it like to...
Dysfunctional Family Winery grand debut…
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...
Vacation rentals are a fixture of wine country
Focusing on vacation rentals is a bit afield from our usual topic - Sonoma grapes and wine. It's all well and good to grow great grapes, make delicious wine, and build beautiful wineries. But we'd...
New York wine client “Sovare” visits Sonoma…
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...
Farming Sonoma vineyards organically
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....
Fun with Wine Science…
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...
Wine Business Monthly’s “Innovation and Quality” Forum at Silverado Resort next week…
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,...
Sonoma “Bee Hive Dive” at Nick’s Ranch
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,...