A winery on the Equator? Yes! (and a coffee plantation too)
On our motorcycle tour through the central Andes of Columbia, we discovered this winery, the Marques de Villa De Leyva... This is the road with a first glimpse of grapevines as we approached the...
Sonoma International Film Festival
Join me for a quick visit to the Sonoma International Film (and food and wine) Festival, as seen through the eyes of Hydeout Sonoma: Our houseguests during the festival were the director and stars...
Meet the winners…
Meet the winners of the Hydeout Sonoma blogpost contest. These 3 eagle-eyed readers spotted my-newt joke in the previous blog post.... For their efforts, they each received a bottle of 2016...
Wine Industry Convention
The Grape and Wine Symposium, in Sacramento every January, is THE largest grape and wine industry convention in North America. Here is a quick 'beginner's tour' for those who are unfamiliar with our...
Sonoma Firestorm, Part 3, Hiking Arrowhead Mountain
In my final post on the 2017 Sonoma Firestorm, (Part 3) come along as we hike through Arrowhead Mountain, the southernmost flank of the Mayacamas Mountains that splits Napa and Sonoma Counties. The...
Hydeout clients release their first estate wine this week…
Sonoma Firestorm – Part 2 – Analysis, Recovery, Celebration
With mother nature, life always follows death... In my previous blog, you saw images of the terrible firestorm and resulting destruction in Sonoma. In "Sonoma Firestorm - Part 2" we visit a...
Six days of fire in Sonoma
Six days of fire in Sonoma…
Everyone in Sonoma has a story to tell about their experience with the 2017 firestorm. Here is ours…
Monday, October 8th, around 1:30am, friends visiting from Indiana were staying in another room when they awoke to see fire out of their guest room window.…
Sonoma grape harvest 2017, a brief video and pictorial essay…
Re-visiting the countryside of Marcillac, Aveyron, France, one year later…
One year ago, Cynthia and I visited the French countryside of Marcillac in the department of Aveyron, six hours south of Paris and four hours north of Spain. Attended by my father-in-law, Bruce...
Sonoma Ag Boosters party at the Hydeout
The Sonoma Valley Ag Boosters, supporters of the Sonoma Valley High School "Future Farmers of America" and the "Sustainable Agriculture Academy", held their annual fundraising gala last night at the...
Nighttime grape harvest in Sonoma
A pictorial essay of Hydeout Consulting's first nighttime harvest for 2017 Below is a pictorial essay following a nighttime harvest of Pinot Noir from our arrival on-site at the vineyard through to...
Countdown begins for harvest 2017 in Sonoma
In Sonoma, the harvest is already well underway for sparkling wines and some Pinots. But for the deeper darker reds, we are just starting to do field sampling of berries. And beginning to forecast...
1st annual wine and music party Hydeout Sonoma 2017
Normally we concern ourselves here with serious topics about growing grapes, making wine, building brands, and occasionally irreverent chatter about the mathematically proven variability of scores,...
Managing vineyard irrigation with high technology
Vineyard irrigation systems, even in small vineyards, are either under-featured or overly complex, and most controllers are prone to problems. In the vineyard, risers get run over by tractors, drip...
It takes a lot of beer to make wine!
It's an old adage in the wine profession, often said with a knowing laugh, that "it takes a lot of beer to make wine." Why? Because working out in the vineyards in the heat of the day is a really...
What are they growing in that vineyard over there?
Standing out in the middle of a vineyard in Bennett Valley yesterday, it struck me how many times I have been asked, "hey Ken, what are they growing in that vineyard over there?" I almost always...
Sonoma Cast Stone, a growing legend in concrete fermentation tank science, and much more!
Being the modest guy that he is, he would fight me off from this label, but at age 82 and still very vigorous, Steve Rosenblatt meets the definition of genius. And with his charming and equally...
Plants that attract beneficial insects and keep Sonoma vineyard healthy
The Kivelstadt vineyard on Bennett Valley Road in Sonoma is a gorgeous 10-acre vineyard, now just reaching 20 years old, and featuring blocks of Pinot Noir, Syrah, and some Viognier (for that...
Sonoma mobile bottling line in time-lapse video
I have some of my client's wine made at the Deerfield custom crush facility in Kenwood. I stopped by the other day to check on some barrels of 2016 Cab and Syrah. They had a mobile bottling line...
Mega-sized sculptures in the vineyard make for a fun evening walk
My good friend and talented photographer, R.K. "Bob" Berg, invited me to join him on a walk through a dramatic installation of new mega-sculptures now underway at a major vineyard here in Carneros....
Sonoma hits record high temps
Roaring hot in Sonoma this week... Anecdotal information is always susceptible to mental inflation, especially when it comes to weather. Fact-based meteorology is more reliable. But still, it sure...
Sonoma vineyards in June after record winter rain 2017
After three consecutive years of record drought, record rains in NorCal in the winter of 2016/2017 have left excess moisture in the ground and created enormous canopies in the vineyard. Extra time...
Hail storm in the vineyard in June in Sonoma
The weather on Sunday got a little crazy in Sonoma as a rain and hail storm raced across from Bennett Valley and Kenwood in Sonoma to St Helena in the Napa Valley. Even during the last three very...
