Rev Winery and Rev Brewing Company

I wrote another post specifically about winery reviews IN Temecula.  You can read about those here.  (NEW WINDOW)  I have also reviewed wineries and breweries in Hawaii which can be viewed here.  (NEW WINDOW)  You can read about other breweries in California here (NEW WINDOW) and other wineries I have been to around California and Mexico here. (NEW WINDOW)

Wine and beer!

Today I am writing my review for Rev Winery and Rev Brewing Co.

Let's start with the bad.  They have a marketing issue.  There is no uniformed location to find info on the web.  If it were me, I would re-brand as Rev Winery and Brewing Co.  One name.  One website.  One Twitter.  One Facebook.  One Logo.

First, you can visit Rev Brewing Company or Rev Winery online but a quick glance at either website tells you they have not been updated in a very long time except for the beer list at the former.  Rev Winery also has a poorly updated Facebook and a Twitter that appears more apt at posting about the beer than the wine.  Rev Brewing Company has a Twitter that was last updated in July of 2015 as well as a Facebook account that's updated about as often as the winery's AND a Facebook page that hasn't been updated in a year.

All that being said, most local craft breweries have the same problem.  They cannot afford to hire a social media person and the owner/operators prefer to spend their energy on the product.  I am not saying that's a bad thing.  Beer and wine are awesome.  But, it's 2017 and a website has to be current and IF you are going to have social media accounts, they must be updated regularly.  It's easy enough to have your Facebook account automatically post to Twitter and Instagram and etc etc etc.  Rev has doubled up their problems by having two separate online presences.

On to the good...

Location.  It's a kind of cool hidden gem, like many craft breweries.  It's hidden in an industrial lot with a tiny, barely visible at night banner out at the street.  Hunting for these breweries is half the fun, right?  The extra cool factor here is that you have to be buzzed in through a gate to get to the parking lot.  It makes you feel like you're living in prohibition times.  An added bonus which ties into my complaints above would be if to get buzzed in, you had to give that days secret code that could only be found on their social media accounts.  (No charge for the suggestion Rev!)

We started our night with a wine tasting flight which gets you four 2 ounce pours.  There were four of us so we got to share and try more wines.  I am hard pressed to find a wine I did not like but I can tell you their Riesling is amazing and their Viognier is one of the best I have ever tasted. The small vineyard is located in Temecula but the winemaker does source grapes from a couple of other California vineyards.  Occasionally, they stock charcuterie boards and cheese platters to go with your flight, but they don't order enough to last between shipments.  The wines all come in at 13% and the employee was well versed in her wine knowledge.

We continued our night with beer flights and pints.  The flights strike me as overpriced compared to other breweries, BUT the quality is there and the pours are generous.  I particularly recommend the Pineapple Cider which is everything a cider should be and the just perfect amount of pineapple taste.  They also have a member's only collaboration with one of my other favorite breweries, Brew Rebellion.  It's a sour green apple beer and it is to die for. Their Chocomil is a great stout and even their hoppiest of beers went down smooth.  The intention was to just have a flight but we had 9 or so pints afterwards.

I joined the quarterly beer club simply because when you factor in the discount for what we were spending, the club only cost me $8 for 3 months.  I get three bombers, access to member's only beers, discounts on my tabs, and free flights.  Not too bad.

The TL:DR version is that the wine is great, the beer is great, the staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and the location is cool but the online presence needs some work.  Go check them out and tell them Bilbo sent you.  They won't know what it means but I like chaos.