At Kunde in Kenwood, your company night, wedding or dinner can be on a hilltop under old oaks or deep in a cave cut into volcanic rock, and those two rooms ask opposite things of a sound system. I've played here, and I bring the sound, the microphone and the timeline for whichever one you choose.
Kunde sits on Highway 12 in Kenwood, in the Sonoma Valley between Santa Rosa and the town of Sonoma, with the Mayacamas behind it. Vines were first planted on this ground in 1879, and the winery describes an estate of about 1,850 acres that runs from the valley floor up into the hills. You'll also see it written as Kunde Family Estate. Same place.
It doesn't feel like a banquet hall, because it isn't one. It's a working winery with several separate event spaces, from a hilltop above the valley to a dining room at the end of the caves.
That range is what the music has to plan for. Outdoors there are no walls to hold the sound, and a hilltop breeze, when there is one, goes straight for the microphone. In the caves it's the reverse (rock on every side, and a little volume goes a long way).
An outdoor hilltop in the Mayacamas foothills, in a grove of valley oaks with wide views over the vineyards. It's a seasonal space. Open air and a climb: nothing up here holds the sound in, and every piece of gear needs a plan for getting up the hill.
Just outside the tasting room, under pecan trees with vineyard and garden views. Dinner and dancing share one space here, so the same speakers have to be gentle through the meal and full once the plates clear.
A hall the winery built in 2024 that works indoors and out. My photos on this page don't show it. Walls help: less volume fills the room. I check where I set up so the sound reaches the outdoor side too.
More than a half mile of caves cut into the hillside behind the winery, through volcanic rock, with a dining room at the far end beneath a Syrah vineyard. Rock reflects everything, so this is quiet, warm music and a careful mic for toasts.
The photos on this page are from my own events at Kunde, several of them from 2012 and 2013: ceremony chairs on a gravel terrace, my table under a big oak, a dance floor after dark. Here's how I set up on this ground.
A ceremony on the terrace and dinner under the trees don't share a sound system. I set a second one where the ceremony happens: its own speaker, a wireless mic for the officiant and the vows, the processional cued. A company night works the same way: sound and a mic wherever the welcome or the toast happens.
I arrive early, and at Kunde that matters more. Whatever goes up the hill goes up complete, because nobody runs back down for a cable. Stands have to sit level on gravel, and I troubleshoot before the first guest comes up. I carry backup equipment, and outdoors that includes a second microphone within reach.
I don't assume an outlet is waiting on a hilltop or at the end of a cave. I ask the winery where power comes from in each space before the day, and my estimate asks you the same question. If there's nothing within reach, a generator gets added, and you don't find that out the week of the event.
The night has an edge here, and the winery sets it. I build the timeline back from the music cutoff they give me: the welcome, the toasts and a first dance if there is one land early, dinner stays at a level you can talk over, and the dance floor gets its full stretch.
First dance under chandeliers and string lights in the oak grove
Setup under the old oak, tables and vineyard behind
Ceremony on the terrace with the valley view, music covered
Dance floor under the lantern-lit oak at night
Sunset on Boot Hill, beside the vines
Golden hour on the hill, Kunde Family Winery
Before the day you fill in a planning questionnaire and we talk through the music: must-plays, do-not-plays, the exact versions of the songs you love. By the time I arrive I already know your event inside and out. Then I'm the MC. Every announcement, entrance and toast is mine to run, so you can simply be there.
Kunde's venue page asks for a planner and a caterer (confirm that with the winery), so you won't be on your own here. Even so, the music, the microphone and the timing aren't theirs to chase or yours to hold. They're mine. And what I don't know about a space, I don't guess. I ask.
An oak canopy is a ceiling waiting to be lit. Uplighting at the base of the trunks would carry warm color up into the branches once the sun is down, and dance-floor lighting would mark where the party is when everything around it is dark vineyard.
In the Magnolia Room or the caves I'd reach for something else: uplighting along the walls, pin spots on the tables, a monogram or pattern projected where you want eyes to go. All of it is an add-on you choose in the instant estimate, and I'd check with the winery what each space allows.
Kunde hosts weddings, rehearsal dinners, private dinners in the caves and private winery events, and I play all of those. A dinner in the caves wants a Selector Session: my own programming, kept low enough to talk over and warm enough to notice. If the winery books your company celebration, milestone birthday, fundraiser or holiday party on the plaza, dinner and dancing happen in one place, and I set up for both.
A welcome party the night before, an after-party, a brand launch at a winery: tell me what it is and I'll tell you how I'd set it up. The Journey, a live sound bath that flows into a facilitated ecstatic dance, can be its own evening or one part of a bigger one.
Every room, from Napa Valley to the coast, is on the rooms list.
Your date, the space you have in mind and the feeling you want in it. Get an instant estimate in a couple of minutes, or book a short call, and I'll take it from there.