At the age of 22, Michael took the reins of his struggling family’s vineyard and winery. With an old meat locker for an office, a shoebox marked “miscellaneous” for an accounting system, and without any formal training, he began canvassing the streets of San Francisco, selling wine and delivering it himself.
Over the last 30 years, Michael has surrounded himself with an incredible team and transformed the family business into a thriving success. With his seemingly endless energy, Michael, who is often referred to as “the James Brown of the wine industry,” spends 75% of his time out in the world connecting with people and introducing them to Honig wines. A leader in sustainable farming, he chaired the first California initiative to develop a “Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices,” a voluntary program establishing statewide guidelines for sustainable farming and winemaking. In keeping with his commitment to sustainability, in 2005 Michael took part in an innovative pilot program to help train yellow lab puppies to detect vine mealybugs in the vineyard, thus, lowering the need for pesticides.
Michael has served on the boards of several organizations including Wine Institute; Napa Valley Vintners; the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance; California Farm Service Agency State Committee; Napa Crime Stoppers; Tower Road Wine Storage.
He lives on the Honig estate in Rutherford with his wife Stephanie, daughters Sophia and Lola, sons Sebastian and Santiago, and their dogs Hunter and Dulce.
