Summer Revival owners Ian and Becky Atkins both grew up in Texas and met in Austin their senior year of college just before Ian joined the US Army. They would go on to get married while stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso. While Ian was deployed in Iraq, Becky opened the first of three full-service restaurants and a food truck. Three of their restaurants were soon recognized by The New York Times and credited as recommendations in “36 Hours In El Paso.”
In 2016, they sold their businesses in El Paso and moved to the Pacific Northwest. After opening a couple of restaurants in Portland, they grew passionate about the art of low-intervention winemaking. In 2018 they opened an urban winery and began producing natural wines with grapes from partner vineyards in Oregon and Washington State.
As many did in 2020, they were forced to make tough decisions and ultimately felt called to come back home to Texas with their daughter, Olive. The move allowed them to expand their wine business and begin building their newest label, Summer Revival Wine Co. They began making wine in Fredericksburg in 2021 and opened their tasting room and Picnic House market in the heart of Dripping Springs in May ’22.
Summer Revival’s tasting room offers an experience, much like their wines, that is unique, memorable, and incredibly approachable. Guests can experience wines from Texas and the Pacific Northwest either as a tasting flight experience or by the glass. Additionally, Becky and Ian have the delightful Picnic House market in the tasting room where you will find items to purchase such as sustainable tinned fish, local charcuterie, handmade pottery, crackers, pâté, chocolates, fresh flowers, and a small selection of Ian’s inspiration wines and Basque ciders.
What exactly is natural wine?
• Often made from organic grapes, whether certified or not
• No chemical intervention
• Wild or native yeast used for fermentation
• Minimal fining or filtering if any
Low intervention winemaking
What we are—since natural wine is minimally intervened with, it goes through continuous fermentation so it can taste a little different! As a living wine, it goes through exciting and vibrant changes that influence the taste from batch to batch, and year to year.