Winemaker Notes
The 2015 Honig Bartolucci Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon shows rich red and black fruit characters framed by notes of berry pie, baking spices and toasted oak. The wine is balanced with fine grain tannins and hints of chocolate.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Bold in flavors yet mellowing slightly with age, this robust and full-bodied wine is rich in black fruit, tobacco leaf, roast beef and black olive flavors. Structured, velvety tannins with deep coffee, cocoa and grilled plum flavors. Has improved steadily with age.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Honig's 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Bartolucci Vineyard spent 20 months in new French oak, leaving it with vanilla and toasted coconut shadings layered over ripe black cherries. Full-bodied, plush and velvety, it delivers ample concentration, soft tannins and a lingering, mocha-tinged finish.
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Wine & Spirits
Kristin Belair makes this wine from a vineyard at the base of Spring Mountain, where the grapes became formidably ripe in 2015 (harvested mid-September at 27.9° Brix, fermented to 15.5 percent alcohol). At first, that ripeness comes across as berry jam, the alcohol extracting some bitter coffee notes from the oak in which it aged. But the supple density of the fruit wins out, and the oak feels more like a charcoal filter to clarify all the material in the wine—the tannins gentle, the fruit nudging it in blackberry directions. Decant this if you open it now; for any charcoal grilled meats.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
St. Helena is in the heart of the Napa Valley, nestled between Calistoga to the north and Rutherford on its southern border. On its western side, the Mayacamas Mountains guard it from the cooling effects of the Pacific Ocean; to its east stand the Vaca Mountains. In conjunction, these mountain ranges serve to lock in summer daytime heat. But in the evening, cool air from the San Pablo Bay funnels up through the valley, creating very chilly nights. It isn’t uncommon for temperatures to drop 50 degrees, a shift that promotes a balance of sugar ripeness and acidity in wine grapes.
St. Helena contains a plethora of different soil types in a small area, which have been enhanced over centuries by rain runoff from both mountain ranges. Its vineyards cover a variety of terrain, spreading across the bucolic valley floor and its benchlands.
These ideal topographic and climatic growing conditions easily caught the attention of early winemaking pioneers. In fact, St. Helena is the birthplace of Napa Valley’s commercial wine industry. Dr. Crane founded his cellar in 1859, David Fulton in 1860 and Charles Krug in 1861.
Today there are no less than 400 separate vineyards planted within the 12,000 acres that make up the St. Helena appellation.
Revered most for its red wines based on Bordeaux varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon, the St. Helena appellation is also a source of superior Syrah, Zinfandel and Sauvignon blanc.