Tucked away in a little hideaway off of Rutherford Rd
and sandwiched between Frog’s Leap Vineyards to the
East and BV Vineyards to the West, is a little winery
specializing in handcrafted Cabernet Sauvignon and
Sauvignon Blanc wines known simply as, “Honig”. It just
so happens to be the namesake of its owner, Michael
Honig. The name Honig is German for Honey and if you
acquire one of their wines, you will no doubt encounter a
honeybee somewhere on the bottle. The tree line that
runs the length of their property to the west separates
Honig vineyards from the Napa River that runs all
throughout the valley. If you turn off of Rutherford road
and take the short little drive up the driveway, you will
soon arrive at a small parking lot and a modest tasting
room building with picnic tables out front.
I had an appointment with David, who works for the
Honig hospitality team, for twelve o’clock sharp. In fact,
you will not be visiting Honig without an appointment, as
they do not allow drop-ins. You know what that means
don’t you? That’s right, no big crowds to contend with,
which always makes the experience much more
enjoyable. David later told me that it is really just so
they can keep track of who all is on the winery premise
at any given time.
After parking the car and grabbing my video and digital
camera, (such a tourist) I headed on into the Tasting
Room where I was warmly greeted by David himself with
a smile and a firm handshake. I was also greeted by two
beautiful young women that just happen to be working in
the tasting room too. David wasted no time whatsoever
in pouring me a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. A wine that I
buy back here in Texas frequently for two basic reasons;
one it is priced at fifteen dollars or less and two, it is
really damn good! In fact it was no small coincidence
that I picked Honig that day for a visit. A few years
back, I was in a tiny wine bar in Fredericksburg, Texas
with Leslie when I first encountered a Honig wine. It was
their 1999 single-vineyard, Stagecoach Cabernet
Sauvignon and we bought a bottle to take back home with
us. We had opened it towards the end of last year and
upon drinking it, I promptly decided to join Honig’s wine
club and I am now regularly receiving their magnificent
wines. In some cases, it is really the only way you can
acquire their special bottlings because they just simply
don’t make enough to send to distributors all over the
U.S.
Now David, my host, whom I would describe as someone
that is “Full Throttle”, was born in Guam, which is also
where his mom was from. His father had been raised in
Whales and since his dad is of English decent, David has
become quite familiar with drinking! He laughs, but
based on the English people I know and love, I’d say
there really is something behind that proclamation.
David’s parents moved to Napa as a family and he
remembers wine being on the kitchen table every day.
Once David starting tasting wine, he instantly developed
a passion for it and began doing a lot of research on the
Internet about the subject of all things wine. He also
really loves to pair wine with food. And as he put it, he
discovered that as long as the wine was good, it made the
bad food he was cooking better! He probably honed the
skill of wine and food pairing while working for the
famous Napa restaurant “Brix” located right off
Highway 29.
David asked me if this was my first stop of the day. I
told him that indeed it was and he informed me that
Honig really shuts the place down for wine club members
and that he recommends friends to come late in the day
because they tend to pour big. I guess he was right, as
we were moving on to the next wine in the collection, it
did seem to take longer than usual to get through that
first glass. And I thought it was because I was just
savoring it. Honig usually gets ten to fifteen wine club
groups visiting the winery a week. “Yea,” David
explains, “The people that pull into our winery all know
something about Honig and what we’re all about. They
don’t just pull in because we are a winery”.
After finishing up the last of the whites, David poured me
the 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon and asked me if I was up
for a little adventure. Little did I know I was about to
embark upon a winery first for me, a wild winery safari
ride! We hopped on a golf cart with a wine glass in hand
and sped off over to an area of the winery that was being
set up for an event. Not just any event either, it is an
annual event that they have at the winery and it is the
brainchild of Elaine Honig, called “Wine, Women &
Shoes”. Many a well to do person is invited to this big
event to bid on shoes and Honig wines. The shoes are all
modeled live by shoe models, (hey I can’t make this stuff
up) and then there is an auction of sorts. A large part of
the proceeds are donated to “Plan Parenthood”. David
informs me that all of the guys that work at the winery
dress up in all black and escort the Lady Shoe Models
around the premise. Hmm, I thought to myself that could
be a lot of fun! How do I get that job?
David dropped off a case of wine for the caterers and we
were back in the golf cart to start our tour of the
vineyards. While I tried to master the art of balancing
two different cameras and a full glass of red wine as we
were driving down a bumpy gravel road, David
proceeded to give me the lowdown on how the winery
came to be. Michael Honig, at age twenty-two built
Honig from the ground up. He is now the president and
CEO of the winery, which is family owned and operated
with only twenty-two full time employees and that is
including Michael. They don’t have very high labor costs
and now that the winery is running 100 percent off of
Solar Power, their electricity bill is next to nothing.
Because of all this and the fact that the land was bought
and paid for a long time ago, they are able to focus on
quality and not quantity to pay for overhead. David says
that he loves working here and that this is the first job
that he has ever had where his boss always says “Thank
you for a job well done.” In fact, all of the employees are
proud to be there.
Michael inherited the property from his grandfather,
Louis Honig, who owned the place since the 1960’s. He
bought it for just $1,100.00 an acre with Sauvignon Blanc
grapes already growing on it. Now of course it would be
worth around $500, 000.00 an acre. The place was meant
to be a summertime getaway for he and his kids and
Louis had dreams of one day hopefully opening up a
winery, but he passed away before he could get one
started. That is where Michael stepped in and decided to
carry the torch so to speak. He is so involved in the day-
to-day operations and success of the winery that he in
fact even chose to live in a house built on the property.
The ground around the vineyards is extremely hard,
however, very much desirable for growing excellent
grapes, olive trees and strawberries. The vines have to
struggle to get water and it is as if the grapevines believe
that each season will be their last to live so they put all
their energy towards the seeds and into producing better
fruit. Last year in 2006, David informed me, the
temperature soared up to one hundred and fifteen
degrees in the valley. The hills to the east and west of
the valley keep the heat in place. In the morning a fog
rolls in, presumably from the proximity of the Pacific
Ocean, and it keeps the valley cool until the sun starts to
burn it off. These wide temperature swings are vital for
building the contrast of sugar and acid in wine grapes and
it was one reason why Napa Valley is the ideal spot for
great Bordeaux varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon and
Sauvignon Blanc. Honig believes in just sticking with the
two grape varietals that grow the best on their property
and that is why they only grow Cabernet Sauvignon and
Sauvignon Blanc grapes almost exclusively with a little
bit of Petit Verdot (Primarily a Bordeaux blending grape)
smattered here and there throughout the vineyards.
We pull up in front of the Winery building that houses all
the tanks and barrels. David jumped off the cart and told
me to “Wait there” while he opened up the building. He
was checking for CO2 before we entered and as he put it,
“So we don’t die!” Inside they used a combination of
large neutral oak barrels and small new oak ones. They
like using the neutral oak barrels in addition to the
stainless steel tanks for the fermentation process. The
neutral oak would give the wine no more influence than
the stainless steel tanks but, he did admit, the steel tanks
were much easier to clean and maintain. The oak tanks
needed to be scrubbed down after every use as opposed
to just being hosed down like the steel tanks. Honig uses
a combination of French and American oak for aging
their wines. The Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, for
example, is aged for twenty-four months in American
Oak while the Bartolucci and other single vineyard Cabs
are aged in French Oak. French Allier Oak to be exact.
At this point, I was out of wine and that certainly wouldn’t
do for David, so we took a quick pit stop at the tasting
room to refill me with the 2002 Napa Valley Cabernet
Sauvignon. Once I was filled up, back on the cart we got
and away we went to head westward into their vineyards.
We didn’t drive very far into the vineyard when David
stopped the cart to point something out to me. It was a
hill that was half covered with grapevines and the other
half with just grass. He asked if I recognized it and I
said, “I’ll be darn, that is the picture on your Sauvignon
Blanc bottle label.” In fact, as it turns out, the painter
hired to paint the picture sat on Michael’s back porch
and used that hill for his painting. I took several pictures
of this hill from different vantage points that you can see
throughout this page.
After I finished taking the photos, we headed back down
the path between the rows of vineyards. As our golf cart
zoomed along we were greeted by the vineyard workers
that were out pruning the vineyards. They were all
smiling and having a good time, or at least it appeared
that way to me. David informs me that the vineyard
workers love to party. David went on to elaborate by
saying, “I don’t speak a lick of Spanish and they don’t
speak a lick of English, but we get together for some
BBQ and the Tequila bottles fly!” Oh brother, Tequila is
not my personal friend and I told David that I thought
Tequila was some scary stuff. To which David replied,
“Yea, it brings out a different drunk in everyone!” How
true.
Just beyond where the vineyard workers were pruning
and right by the tree line next to the Napa River, was a
habitat for what else, honey bees. I guess they are really
sticking to their theme. Honig actually keeps these bees
on property to harvest honey from and send it out to their
wine club members. I haven’t received mine yet, but I
can’t wait. David informs me that there is an old Indian
trick whereby if you eat the native honey from where you
live, you will build up immunities to the local allergies. I
guess it will be safe from me to return to Napa next year.
Now that we reached the tree line, we turned our golf
cart south and headed down towards the farthest
southwest corner of their property, right next to
Rutherford Road and the Napa River. The vineyards
here in this corner are referred to as Vineyard Block
One and they are planted with Sauvignon Blanc grapes.
Although there are plenty of Sauvignon Blanc grapes
grown throughout the property, it is these vines in
particular that have a distinct character that makes them
unique. This section receives more shade from trees on
two sides, south and west, and experience more moisture
from the proximity of the Napa River as well as a direct
result of the additional shade. Why does this matter you
ask? Well, the extra moisture brings on what is known in
Europe as “Noble Rot”, a.k.a. Botrytis Cinerea, the
same bunch rot that gives us the most famous of all
dessert wines in the world, known simply as Sauternes.
Now Honig admits that initially they were not at all
thrilled by the presence of this Noble Rot in their
Sauvignon Blanc grapes and one year, 1999 to be exact,
they took about six barrels of wine made from these
grapes and invited some friends and the friends of their
friends to come over to the winery and let their children
do the whole “Lucille Ball” grape stomping thing with
their feet. Afterwards, Michael took the juice and
grapes from the foot stomping party and put them in a
large oak barrel sitting in the corner of the winery.
Michael told everyone, “We’ll throw it away tomorrow”.
Well tomorrow turned into a month and then a year and a
half later. One day, Honig’s winemaker, Kristen Belair,
was going through the winery and looked into that barrel
and noticed the juice inside. She asked Michael what it
was, to which he exclaimed, “You didn’t drink that did
you? That’s kids feet stuff!” However, curiosity got the
best of them and they decided to sample it after all. To
their surprise, it had made a really good sweet wine, all
on its own. So they decided to make about 130 bottles of
wine from the juice and hand painted the labels to give
the wines away as gifts to the families that participated in
the grape-stomping event. Apparently these families
gave some of these wines to their friends and other
people and pretty soon people starting showing up at the
winery wanting to purchase their late-harvest wine.
Michael would say to them, “But we don’t make a late-
harvest wine”. The customers would insist, “Yea you do,
you know the one that comes in the hand painted label.”
Michael shouted, “Oh my gosh! You mean the kids feet
stuff!” Kristen promised Michael that if the Botrytis
grew again in the grapes, then she would make some
more of it. Would you believe it has grown every year
since? Their first official vintage of the wine was the
2000.
At this point we parked the golf cart in the corner and
wandered down to the Napa River just under the
Rutherford Road Bridge. The walk down was steep and
you had to navigate over some large boulders, but it was
well worth it. Tucked tightly at the base of the bridge
where the support column meets the underside of the
road, are rows and rows of swallow nests with their
owners buzzing in and out in a seemingly frantic haste. In
the river itself there are Salmon that are swimming
upstream to spawn. David cautions me though, that they
are not good to eat right now because they would not
taste very good and if someone was dead set on having
one for dinner, it would be best to smoke them. There
are also plenty of rainbow trout, steelhead and large and
small mouth bass that make the Napa River their
permanent home. The sights and sounds of the river
were amazing to behold, but hey, my wine glass was
empty!
After David finished taking me around the rest of the
vineyards for some more photo opportunities, we headed
back into the tasting room to try a couple of their single-
vineyard Cabs and of course that now famous late-
harvest wine. The wines, once again reaffirmed why I
got on their mailing list in the first place, but the 2003
Bartolucci Cabernet stole my heart that day. It did not at
all resemble the pitfalls of that tough vintage that so
many other wineries fell victim to. About the time I was
into oh and awing the luscious richness of their dessert
wine, a limo pulled up into the parking lot and a carload
of bachelorettes spilled out. David announced, “This
must be my bachelorette party I was expecting today”,
and with that he grabbed some wine and glasses and
headed out towards the giddy young ladies. He could
barely hold in that smirk on his face as he charged out
the door. He looked to me very much like a man on a
mission! Hey, I told you earlier, David is “full throttle”.
And so was my experience at Honig Winery!
Sauvignon Blanc
Bottle Picture
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