A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

In case you missed this post, it is a fun review of the holiday season in Sonoma Valley and the Sonocaia winery. Give yourself 10 minutes to catch up with wine country. Warmly, Ken Wornick

Join us for a year-end wine country photo journey in our final Sonocaia blog post of 2023:

Locals tasting event

With the help of some very wonderful friends, we sold out another ‘grand opening’ winery event – mainly for locals that missed the initial launch of Sonocaia estate winery.

I presented a story of ‘wine in context’ – when tasting wine it is important to know “why” this wine was produced. In our case, we started almost twenty five years ago in the Santa Cruz Mountains developing vineyards for private clients. A decade later we had more than 40 vineyards built and were making a lot of personalized wine for those clients in our urban winery in Redwood City. Some of those wines won Gold and Double-Gold from the SF Chronicle wine competition. We sold the vineyard development and winery businesses to an investor. See this link for more. Over the next ten years, we built a second client-based vineyard development and wine making business, this time in Sonoma Valley. And sold that business in 2023. See this link for more.

Our newest project is the Sonocaia estate winery  – focussed exclusively on Sagrantino, a rare red variety of very high repute from Montefalco Umbria Italy. Meanwhile, our second brand, Dysfunctional Family Winery, still lives on with the motto “serious wine, irreverent style” offering fun blends for all taste preferences and budgets. See link here.

A sold-out crowd enjoyed the stories, wines, food, and conversation…

KW3 - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

Working our way through the wine lineup

Opening 4b - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

Answering a question about the unique clonal history of the Sonocaia Sagrantino grapevines

Opening 4a - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

New friends being made all around the table

Opening 4c - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

The tasting continues deep into the library wines

Sonocaia cars - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

At the end of the tasting, a couple of wild local yahoos in their ridiculous jacked-up sport cars hit the gas and ripped up our nice new parking lot! Nah, not really, just kidding NF and GM.

But wait, there’s more…

A large, warm, and wonderful family from all over the U.S. (and three generations!) spent an afternoon with us the day after Thanksgiving ’23. We had a ball tasting through many wines, having lots of technical questions and answers about growing grapes and making wine, and generally having some great laughs. The toddler played with my guitar and beat a wine barrel with the drum sticks. Thank you Ginny and Larry.

guest family tasting thanksgiving - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

Sonocaia in the Sonoma Index-Tribune newspaper

Our local Sonoma newspaper took an interest in our new Sonocaia winery project. Find the full article here.The author, Emma Malloy, did a great job detailing the history of our winery project. They lead with this headline: More than a winery: Sonocaia, and agricultural gem.

KSVY 91.3FM Community radio

Our local radio station KSVY 91.3FM has great wall-to-wall programming including talk, music, news, food, politics, and so much more. Not everyone is aware of the quality of the programming, yet. I’ve been a frequent guest on station manager and KSVY Exec Director Bob Taylor’s “Morning Show” many times. If you are a Sonoma local, it is well worth tuning in and supporting. They recently launched a new transmission antenna and expanded their reach from Sonoma, now reaching into Petaluma, Novato, and Napa. And last month, KSVY held a very unusual fund raiser. At the vaunted and historic Sebastiani Theatre, built in 1933, five great bands played country and western music all afternoon to the hoots and hollers of a large crowd. Learn more about KSVY here.

Sebastiani and KSVY - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

The crowd begins to gather at the Sebastiani Theatre

Bob - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

Bob Taylor, Executive Director of Sonoma community radio KSVY 91.3 (and lead guitarist of ACDC cover band “Illegitimate AC/DC”)

Roger - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

Patrons Diana Bugg and Leslie Carlson; and Roger Rhoten, widely beloved manager for over 30 years of the Sebastiani Theatre

KSVY 3 - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

Sonoma Valley Museum of Art

SVMA, our treasured Sonoma art museum, situated on Broadway very close to the Sonoma Plaza, held a very fun ‘poetry, food, and wine’ event in the museum’s gallery. Sold out weeks in advance, the poetry was provocative, warm, and hilarious. A far cry from the sleepy prose that I recall from English class in 7th grade. I poured Sonocaia and Dysfunctional Family wines at the event. See more here. Carole Copelan poured her Owl’s Perch and Harpsichord wines. And Chef Kyle Kuklewski served some delicious bites which paired beautifully with the wines and the poetry. The art in the background in some of the images below are from Richard Mayhew and the exhibition is called Inner Terrain.

SVMA 5 - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey svma 1 - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey svma 2 - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journeysvma 4 cyn - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

Sonoma International Film Festival

Named “One of the 25 Coolest Festivals” by MovieMaker Magazine and one of “America’s Top Ten Destination Film Festivals” by USA Today, and coming up on March 20th – 24th, 2024; all passes to the Sonoma International Film Festival are on sale right now. It is a fully park-and-walk festival with great venues, truly excellent films, delicious food, and first class wine. You don’t want to miss it!

The staff and board of the film festival gathered for our holiday party. Many of Sonoma’s non-profits were also represented. And as always, the event was hosted by Kevin and Rosemary McKneely, our most important and generous patrons.

Screenshot 2023 12 18 at 4.27.11 PM - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

SIFF party 2 - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

In the center, film festival board members Lisa Mango and Patty Elkus

SIFF party - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

Film festival patrons

DYS Kev - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

Kevin McNeely, Executive Director Emeritus of the Sonoma Valley International Film Festival, hoists a giant Methuselah of 2018 Dysfunctional Family Winery ‘Red Blend’, equal to 6 liters or 8 bottles. The SIFF film festival and Dysfunctional have teamed up several times for outdoor movie nights on the lawn, and we’ll return to that program someday soon.

SIFF leadership - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

Sonoma International Film Festival – Kevin McNeely (Emeritus Creative Director), Bob Berg (Board Chair), John Curry (Emeritus Board Chair), and me, Ken Wornick (Board Vice-Chair)

Community Hanukkah

Supporting the Jewish community in their time of extreme stress, and for the right of Israel to exist, we attended a Hanukkah holiday event at the local Shir Shalom temple, then we cooked traditional potato latkes (don’t tell the cardiologists) and joined the larger Sonoma community for a public inter-faith community-wide menorah lighting and some street dancing too, on the last day of Hanukkah. The local Sonoma police and the County Sheriff’s offices blocked off a portion of Spain Street near the Plaza and provided a watchful vigil during the ceremonies, for which all attendees were quite grateful.

Below, winery client Patty Elkus submitted this beautiful image she titled “Lil Vignette of Santa and his Rosé” for the holidays. Seemed like just the right image for us to include with the Hanukkah story!

Dear Santa - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

Bees and wax candle making

We put our Hydeout farm bee hives to bed for the winter, allowing the bees to build a seal around every crack and crevice of their hives, thus sheltering themselves from wind and rain and cold during the winter. Before that, we did the necessary hive work and collected some of the extra wax for various projects, seen here. I want to particularly thank Nic Freedman of Bees Rock Ranch and Chere Pafford, a renowned holistic bee keeper, both of whom acted as my mentors during this entire season.

Olives and oil

We harvested over a ton of Hydeout olives this year. Like everything on the farm, our approach is 100% organic. Due to last winters excellent rain, and the light crop in 2022, the 2023 crop was not only large, but nearly completely free of olive fruit flies. All in all a great olive harvest yielding deeply unctuous green oil.

Fall harvest – our final harvest of fruits and veggies from mid-December here at the farm
Fall vegetables - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

The very last of the tomatoes, persimmons, and figs picked just before the first rain (with a few peppers and some fresh eggs too).

What’s next for 2024?

The 2022 and 2023 vintages of Sagrantino are resting in barrels for the winter. The wild grasses and mustard are pushing up through the wet dirt from the recent three inches of rain. The winter solstice arrived on December 21st. Now the days get longer once again. We’ll prune the grape vines, mow the cover crop, and start in on another vintage. The 2024 vintage will be my 25th vintage.

Wishing all of you a wonderful New Year.

And when the holidays are done and things have returned to normal, we’ll still be here  – ready to supply you with delicious wine. You can always order wine and pick it up at the winery. And we can ship too. Just click on this link!  https://www.sonocaia.com

Happy new year everyone! – Ken

Ken in a Barrel - A year-end wine country lifestyle photo journey

Summer in Sonoma  – Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

Summer in Sonoma – Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

After religiously posting every month for several years, it’s been nearly five months since I last posted.

Below are some brief stories about farming, the Sonoma Int’l Film Festival Summerfest, and a local Rodeo.

In the next few Sundays, we’ll look at Sagrantino through the lens of our trip to Umbria Italy. Then we’ll have a look at a professional blind Sagrantino tasting. And after that, a look at the 2022 harvest. Enjoy…

Farming in summer

Vneyard before - Summer in Sonoma - Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

By late summer, our Sagrantino vineyard can be a bit of a sprawl as the long days and warm weather inspire a growth spurt in canopy and shoot length. Not only unsightly, it also tends to shade the fruit from sun and trap air movement. So a clean up is in order.

Vineyard after - Summer in Sonoma - Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

After shoots are trimmed and positioned into the canopy wires, and lower leaves are removed around the fruit zone on the north facing side of each row, the vines are now well positioned to ripen fruit late into the fall.

Sonoma International Film Festival – Summerfest

One of the truly fun annual events in Sonoma is the Sonoma International Film Festival. Our next festival kicks off on March, 22-26 in 2023. Meanwhile, the Festival held a weekend-long “Summerfest” in early August with films during the day and films and dinners and parties at night. Here is a quick look:

Screen Summer - Summer in Sonoma - Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

Summerfest started with a grand launch at the Sebastiani Theater.

Lawn - Summer in Sonoma - Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

An outdoor film screening, food trucks, and fabulous wine – on the lawn at Chateau St Jean Winery

Screen Cuisine - Summer in Sonoma - Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

Sit down dinner and a movie – “screen and cuisine” – at the Hanna Boys Center. The movie, a biopic of noted chef and restauranteur Charlie Trotter, was moving, controversial, and entertaining.

Chefs - Summer in Sonoma - Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

Before dinner service, the crowd celebrated the five chefs and their wonderful and creative menus

Menu - Summer in Sonoma - Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

The complete menu from the nights event, along with wine pairings, and key sponsors

Screen SIFF - Summer in Sonoma - Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

Buy your tickets now for next spring’s Film Festival, March 22-26, a totally “walkable” festival on the square in Sonoma town – https://sonomafilmfest.org

Rodeo at Wing and Barrel

Seems like there is nothing more all-american than a rodeo, especially when it starts with someone jumping out of any airplane with a giant American flag, and sticking the landing right in the middle of the paddock!

Flag - Summer in Sonoma - Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

The event was held at Wing and Barrel, set on a 1,000 acre hay ranch few minutes south of Sonoma. W&B is a membership facility designed with a hunter’s sensibilities and a connoisseur’s palate “catering to discerning sportsmen, women and their families.”

Horses - Summer in Sonoma - Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

The Rodeo got started with a roundup of the horses into the large corral. All of the cowboys and cowgirls were gathering their gear, stretching out, and getting ready to compete.

Rodeo - Summer in Sonoma - Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

The action lasted all afternoon. Incredible talent that can only be developed when you spend your childhood, or a lot of time, or both, around horses. Photo credit: local Sonoma artist and photographer Jock McDonald https://www.jockmcdonald.com

Cowboys - Summer in Sonoma - Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

Our group of rodeo clowns, during a stop at the Wing and Barrel bar, heading out to the rodeo. Our generous hosts, Jon and Christine Curry, 3rd and 4th from left.

DYS rose - Summer in Sonoma - Farming, Summerfest, and Rodeo

Enjoying some Dysfunctional Family Winery rosé, and beer, and tequila

In the next few Sundays, we’ll look at Sagrantino through the lens of our trip to Umbria Italy. Then we’ll have a look at a professional blind Sagrantino tasting. And after that, a look at the 2022 harvest.

Sonoma – wine tasting, film, food, horses, chickens, and fun

Sonoma – wine tasting, film, food, horses, chickens, and fun

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

SIFF opening night - Sonoma - wine tasting, film, food, horses, chickens, and fun

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.

SIFF leadership - Sonoma - wine tasting, film, food, horses, chickens, and fun

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

Chicks - Sonoma - wine tasting, film, food, horses, chickens, and fun

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
Horses panoramic - Sonoma - wine tasting, film, food, horses, chickens, and fun

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
weather 1 - Sonoma - wine tasting, film, food, horses, chickens, and fun

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

Legacy of Zinfandel – a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani’s home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

Legacy of Zinfandel – a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani’s home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

Legacy of Zinfandel in California – the Sawyer/Casale tasting panel

Generously hosted by Don Sebastiani in his home cellar, and curated by 3Badge/Gehricke CFO Keith Casale and well known Sonoma Sommelier Christopher Sawyer, we tasted our way through ten carefully aged 20-30 year-old California Zinfandels. The panel participants spanned across Sonoma grape growers, winemakers, and wine industry and media experts. The entire tasting was blind which inevitably lead to informed and wild guesses about appellation, vintage, producer, style, and so on. Click HERE to see the list of wines and vintages in the lineup. 

Sawyer Casale 2 - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

Carefully and quietly tasting each wine, taking time to reflect and make careful notes. On the left side of the table, front to back – Wilfred Wong (Wine.com), Keith Casale (CFO, 3Badge, Gehricke), Rebecca Robinson (Executive Director of ZAP), Mark Dommen (Chef – One Market Restaurant), Dan Berger (Vintage Experiences). On the right side of the table, front to back – Jeff Cohn (Cohn Cellars), Gillian Balace (Treasury Wine Estates), Chris Morisoli (Morisoli Vineyard), Tres Goetting (Biale Vineyards), Mike Hendry (Hendry Vineyard), Dr. Liz Thach (Master of Wine). Don Sebastiani (at the head of the table).

Sawyer Casale 3 - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

Sommelier Chris Sawyer reveals the names, vintages, and histories of each of the ten wines. Fascinating discussion followed. These old Zins mostly showed to be very long lived and is a testament to the skill of the winemakers back in the 1990’s. Most of the wines really held up despite their age, showing soft tannins, crisp acidity, and surprisingly fresh fruit; these traits are perhaps the hallmark of long-lived Zinfandel, California’s most “native” variety. Christopher will be collating the tasting notes and will be publishing the results soon.

Click HERE to see the list of wines and vintages in the lineup. 

Sawyer Casale 4 - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

After the tasting, Chef Keith Filipello of Wild Thyme Catering served lunch to the tasting panel, on the patio of Don’s home just above of the wine cellar.

SummerFest at Sonoma International Film Festival Aug 5th – 8th, 2021

A not-to-be-missed event in Sonoma, the SummerFest film festival is loaded with great films, wine, food, music, and fun. Tickets to this party are going fast. Click here to buy tickets and join the party

SIFF SUMMERFEST 2 - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

The SummerFest mini-festival is not to be missed. The event features 40 narratives, documentaries and short films from 15 countries screening in person at Sebastiani Theatre and Andrews Hall (at the Sonoma Community Center) all weekend, two outdoor winery screenings with live music, and SIFF Screen & Cuisine, a dinner, live music and film special events.

SIFF Kevin breakfast - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

Sonoma Int’l Film Festival Artistic Director Kevin McNeely serves a very bountiful breakfast at his hillside home above Sonoma town to his new SIFF board V.P. (that would be me). Kevin is the man behind the curtain at the festival and a wonderful leader who expertly guides the festival staff and cheerfully greets all festival guests.

Jack London State Park – a gala donation dinner event

Another Sonoma treasure, Jack London State Park is packed with history, hiking and biking and horse trails, and historic buildings. In early June, a small group of friends gathered for a private dinner hosted by park staff. In luxury SUV’s, our group of ten was ushered to near the top of the park, just short of the summit 4.5 miles from the parking lot at 2,464 feet. We hiked the hilariously easy last 100 yards (seen here) to the top and enjoyed bubbles, rosé, and views of the Sonoma Valley. Then we walked back down to the cars where we found tables set up for a very thoughtfully prepared meal. After a couple of hours of food and fun, we drove half way back down the hill to a clearing and watched a stunning moon rise. And all for a good cause. Next up – click here for tickets to the upcoming Jack London State Park gala.

Jack London 2 - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

A group of Jack London Sate Park supporters arrives at the top of Sonoma Mountain after an exhausting 100 yard walk to the top.

Jack London 1 - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

In the wee hours well after dinner, the group settles in to watch the full moon rise from a clearing in the park. This photo was taken in complete pitch-blackness with an old iPhone and the photographer disavows any responsibility for the appearance of the participants.

A local Sonoma men’s group affectionally known as the “Choir” enjoyed a night of ‘practice’ with a tequila tasting generously hosted by one of our winemaker members. 123 Spirits founder David Ravandi presented the tequila lineup. The tasting took place in an old “Turkey Barn” just across the street from the world-wide headquarters of Dysfunctional Family Winery.

Tequilla 1 2 3 - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

Left to right, Blanco (1), Reposado (2) , Añejo (3) – part of the 123 Spirits tequila lineup. Behind the bottles, yours truly Ken Wornick on the left (with maybe a bit too much sun), and David with the hat.

123 Spirits founder David Rivandi - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

123 Spirits founder David Ravandi explaining how he manages his farming and agave fermentations.

123 Spirits tasting panel - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

As is standard protocol, the faces of “Choir Practice” members have been blurred to maintain an air of confidentially. The group placed a lot of orders and nearly drained his current inventory.

Tacos - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

These delicious homemade tacos were supplied by Dani Luzzati from Bella Lu Catering.

More wine country news from Sonoma – barrel tasting, interviews, new oak barrels, etc…
Keatings - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

In front of a stack of Hydeout Sonoma and Dysfunctional Family Winery barrels, we are barrel sampling the inaugural 2020 vintage of the Keating Family “Quail Run” Cabernet Sauvignon, scheduled for release in September 2022.

Jan Keating - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

Jan Keating, artist and art educator, taking notes in discussion for the family’s “Quail Run” estate Cabernet

wine barrels for harvest 2021 - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

Preparing for the 2021 harvest, in front of +/- a hundred Hydeout Sonoma and Dysfunctional Family Winery barrels full of client wines sits a dozen new French oak barrels from Tonnellerie Bel Air.

ADA73545 44E9 4022 99DB 9F2DB9052761 - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

The entire Wornick family for my dad’s 89th birthday and mom’s 85th birthday – mom and dad front center, with brothers, wives and kids; celebrated on the Bay and at the Ballpark, this group represents the completely unsuspecting inaugural members of the original dysfunctional family.

Ken in grapes rotated - Legacy of Zinfandel - a wine tasting at Don Sebastiani's home cellar, and other Sonoma Valley events

Thank you for reading another installment of the Dysfunctional Family Winery blog, sincerely, Ken