How Ravens guard Kevin Zeitler fell in love with wine — and became a ‘guru’ for his teammates

Kevin Zeitler’s unlikely transformation into a wine guy started in a nurturing environment: Napa Valley.

Around 2016, about 100 miles from the stadium where the Ravens’ stalwart right guard will line up against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night, he took a trip with his wife, Sara, to California’s wine country.

The year before, she’d traveled to the Bay Area to watch Kevin’s Cincinnati Bengals play the Oakland Raiders. In the lead-up to the game, Sara, along with other teammates’ wives, visited Napa. She came back “hooked,” Kevin said.

Their return trip was eye-opening. For four days, Kevin took in the scenery, hung out with friends and “pounded” wine.

“Suddenly,” Zeitler recalled, “I liked it.”

Around the NFL, the 33-year-old leading AFC guards in Pro Bowl voting is known for his iron-man resilience and obsession with technique. But, in the Ravens’ locker room, he’s become known as something of an oenophile, the guy you text to ask for recommendations on a good bottle.

“He’s definitely the guru of this thing,” right tackle Morgan Moses said, and he has the custom-made sneakers to prove it.

Zeitler’s interest in wine turned into more of a hobby during the coronavirus pandemic, when he found himself with more time to collect. In an interview last week, he rattled off five favorites: Frank Family Vineyards, Sherwin Family Vineyards, Hundred Acre Wraith, Bond, Hourglass. When the Zeitlers were designing a new cabin to be built back home in Wisconsin, they made sure to include a temperature-controlled cellar in the blueprints.

But Kevin swears he’s no snob. He enjoys what he calls “the good stuff” — “there’s a reason it’s up there,” he explained — but said he’s not above drinking something off the shelf.

“The simple truth is, I don’t know enough to be picky,” Zeitler said. “I’ve had some very good wines or ones that are critically acclaimed. I’ve had a couple $15 wines that I think are super-duper good, so I don’t approach it like that. It’s just, if I’m around people and we’re having a good time, we’re going to explore, try and see if there’s new things I like.”

In March 2022, the Zeitlers were back in Napa with a couple of other Ravens couples, including fullback Patrick Ricard and his wife, Hayley. The timing was awkward. Free agency was getting underway, Ricard was still unsigned, and wine had been consumed.

“I was getting calls from [coach John] Harbaugh and G-Ro [offensive coordinator Greg Roman] while we were at wine tasting,” Ricard recalled. “So I’m like, ‘All right, guys. I’m going to stop drinking because they’re calling me about stuff.’”

The Ravens’ travel schedule won’t allow for any wine country visits this weekend, Zeitler said, but there’s always the offseason. As part of a fundraiser for their alma mater, Wisconsin Lutheran, Kevin and Sara auctioned off a four-day group trip to Napa. The school-record bid for a big-ticket auction item, Kevin said, was about $25,000.

Their wine trip went for $80,000.

“Apparently,” Zeitler said, “people just want to drink wine with us.”