2019 Revival Vineyards Field Guide Red Wine Napa Valley 750 ml

Revival Vineyards founders Sean and Lindsay Garvey have always been friends first, industry connections second.

They’re both scions of prominent Napa winegrowing families: Lindsay’s comes from the grapegrowing Buehler clan, while Sean’s from the family that founded and operated Flora Springs for four decades. Their Revival Vineyards wines have a fervent, but niche, following. Contracting with top vineyards, they make just a few hundred cases each vintage, most of that allocated to white tablecloth restaurants.

So when they started telling us about their 2019 Field Guide Red, we reacted as friends would—with excitement at the massive hit our buddies had on their hands. Crafted by Enrico Bertoz—a “cult winemaker” according to Wine Spectator—from top Rutherford fruit, it blends Bordeaux structure with brilliant California opulence.

They first began making the Field Guide blend back in 2012. Our own Eduardo Dingler was a huge fan of the cuvée from the start, placing the bottle on lists in his wine-director days.

Every year they tweak the blend and sourcing to make the best expression possible, and in 2019—a year of bold richness—they optimized for full-bodied voluptuousness. Most of the fruit is drawn off the Komes Vineyard in Rutherford, a jewel of a site that the family has since sold (it still belongs to Flora Springs). If you were to stake out a prime spot in Rutherford, you couldn’t do better than this one, which is nestled near Staglin, Bella Oaks, and BV’s legendary #2 vineyard. 

The rest comes from the Red Hen Vineyard in Oak Knoll, a favorite of 100-point winemaker Maayan Koschitzky’s La Pelle label. After 18 months of aging in oak and another four years in bottle, this is drinking like a dream—the ultimate crowd-pleaser.