Winery Overview
Dancing Crow's estate vineyards are located near Clear Lake in Lake County where the abundant water, vegetation and wildlife attracted the most concentrated population of Native Americans in California. Early Europeans settlers by the mid 1850's were quick to identify the area as prime agricultural land. Pears and walnuts were popular early crops in addition to vineyards. At one time Lake County was considered "The Pear Capital of the World" . The oldest vineyard was planted in 1901 and is a registered historic vineyard still producing fruit today. Dancing Crow's Sauvignon Blanc vineyard was a pear orchard until in 1998. A Lake County farmers rule of thumb is, plant Sauvignon Blanc where pears thrive and Red Varietals where walnuts do. Owner/Founder Tony Cartlidge, after selling the very successful Cartlidge & Browne Winery in 2011, was interested in developing a family winery with his wife Sarah and sons Adam and Stefan. Having purchased Sauvignon Blanc fruit since 2002 from the Dancing Crow Vineyard for Cartlidge & Browne's only single vineyard wine, he was aware of the exceptional quality and the unique Sancerre style of wine that could be derived from this site. He was able to purchase this 36 acre vineyard and released the first vintage of Sauvignon Blanc under the Dancing Crow Vineyards label with the 2014 vintage. After acquiring the Dancing Crow vineyard Tony worked with vineyard manager David Weiss and winemakers David and Katharine DeSante to diversify the vines planted to four clonal selections. In 2018 Tony purchased 20 acres in the Kelsey Bench AVA, perhaps the finest red wine growing area in Lake County. 7 of the acres are the historic 'Old Stake 1901 Vineyard,' which has some 20 head trained varietals that compose the winery's Field Blend and are valued components to the Dancing Crow Zinfandel. Adjacent to the ancient vines are 13 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon planted in 2017 and harvested for the first time in 2021. Dancing Crow Vineyards works closely with several additional growers to add to their selection of wines. A new state of the art winery has been built next to Dancing Crow's Sauvignon Blanc vineyard and in 2022 Dancing Crow welcomed Scott Kirkpatrick as their new wine maker! Located just 20 miles north of Calistoga, Dancing Crow and the Lake County AVA boast many similarities to the famed Napa Valley region. Deep, nutrient rich clay soils and high-elevation vineyards deliver concentrated California wines at an incredible value. Regal carries the following Dancing Crow Wines: Sauvignon Blanc, Rose, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Old Stake 1901 Field Blend.