Dancing Crow Vineyards

Tony grew up in Hampstead, London England and is the offspring of an anarchist orphaned father and a German-Jewish, refugee, artist mother. His father, Derrick, abandoned on the steps of a London orphanage as a baby, was a suitably Dickensian figure of great warmth and wit, with a spectacular distain for authority. Barbara, his mother, was a leading jewelry designer and gallery owner in London.

During his early years, Tony attended a free expression school called Burgess Hill. After leaving school at 16 he worked in Paris, North Africa, and the Soviet Union before a brief sojourn at the Architectural Association in London. Turning west, more particularly northwest, he came to America with somewhat typical immigrant aspirations. He worked in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska driving logging trucks and cement mixers. A chance gift of a wine book led him 750 miles south in search of an opening in the alluring wine renaissance happening in Napa County.