Honig Cabernet Sauvignon Review

This review of Honig Cabernet Sauvignon features roof rakes, great neighbors and a special serving suggestion for this wine.

As you’ll see in the review below, this wine caught me by surprise.

The Story of How This Bottle Made Its Way to Me

Here in New England, the winter of 2014 – 2015 was especially difficult with all the snow we had.

We got so much snow that we had to use extra long roof rakes to rake the heavy snow off our roofs.

I mentioned in my previous review of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir that I have neighbors with great taste in wine.

Over this past winter they let me borrow their roof rake and get the snow off my roof.  The next day, I strapped on my snowshoes and walked on top of the four feet of snow we had over to their house.

They had a hard to reach section of their roof with a lot of snow on it.  Since I had my snowshoes on and their roof rake in hand, I cleared the hard to reach section of their roof.

So recently, while spending a little time together, they presented me with the bottle of Honig Cabernet you see in the picture above as a thank you for helping them out.

Honig Cabernet Sauvignon Tasting

For this review I tasted the Honig Cabernet 2012 from Napa Valley.

Appearance

In appearance, this wine is deep ruby in color.  It’s medium dark in translucency and very little light gets through this wine.

It’s very leggy with several small to medium size legs that fell slowly down the sides of the glass, hinting at a heavy wine.

Aroma

The wine’s aroma had medium loft and a good bit of intensity to it.

I noticed fully developed notes of earth, clove, tobacco and dark red fruits.  There were also occasional mocha hints that would waft over from the glass.

Most noticeable was the good sting of alcohol on the nose.

Honig Cabernet Sauvignon alcohol content 14.5% by volume, putting it fairly high on the scale.

Taste

Upon first sip, I noticed blackcurrant, earth and perhaps a hint of non-sweet raisin.

However, after the wine had just a short chance to breathe, most of the black fruits disappeared from the flavor.

That surprised me.

From there, the tannins took over and carried the medium length finish.  I noticed that they were coarse and really felt them behind my lower lip.

To be sure, I refreshed the wine in my glass with a splash of “new” wine from the bottle.  Sure enough, the black fruits came right back.

Having now tasted over 100 wines for Honest Wine Reviews, I love it when a wine finds a way to surprise me.  Especially when I’m surprised by a favorite varietal like Cabernet Sauvignon.

Has that ever happened to you?

Overall Opinion

I definitely enjoyed this wine.

Putting all the pieces together, I think this wine’s strength is in its complex aroma and taste.

While the finish is good, there is just a bit of extra bitterness in there.  Cellaring for a few years might not be a bad idea.

Given the complex aroma and flavor surprise, I might suggest serving this wine in small portions in a large glass.  Consider doing this to funnel the aroma up to your nose and catch the fresh black fruit flavors before they dissipate with air.

Honig Cabernet price about $40.00.

P.S.  I finally got my own roof rake!