Curran Alexander Vineyards: 150 Years of Family Land Turned Yadkin Valley Wine Estate

Curran Alexander Vineyards: A Family Farm Turned Vineyard

The land that is now Curran Alexander Vineyards came into the family in the late 1800s, when Curran Alexander Snider (born 1868) and his wife Frances (born 1870) bought a partially finished farmhouse and surrounding acreage in the Reeds community of Davidson County. They completed the house, raised eight children there, and farmed the land in tobacco, corn, wheat and vegetables for generations. It stayed a working farm for more than 150 years before a shift toward wine.

In 2001, Curran and Frances’s direct descendants recognized that the property’s soil and elevation were well suited to European Vitis vinifera grapes, and planted the first vineyard rows. The goals were straightforward: make good wine, honor the family’s agricultural legacy, and keep the land working. Two decades later, the family has restored the original Snider farmhouse into a four-bedroom guest house and built a new tasting room and event tent on the property — a rare combination of a genuine 19th-century family homestead and a modern Yadkin Valley wine destination.

The Wines of Curran Alexander Vineyards

The vineyard sits at 800–810 feet in elevation on Cecil sandy clay loam soil — clay that holds moisture through dry spells, sand that keeps the vines from sitting in too much water, in a spot with hot summer days and cool evenings that help the fruit ripen fully. The estate grows French-clone Cabernet Sauvignon (clone 337, first planted in 2001), Cabernet Franc (clone 332, also planted in 2001), and Merlot (clone 181, planted starting in 2005) — the backbone of their celebrated Meritage-style red blend. In 2021 the family added Sauvignon Rytos, a Sauvignon Blanc × Bianca hybrid planted on cooler, north-facing, granite-pebbled slopes, producing an aromatic white with citrus, tropical fruit and green apple notes and a mineral finish.

It is a small, focused lineup built entirely around what actually grows well on this particular hillside, rather than a long list of imported styles — the kind of estate-driven approach we point out to guests who want to taste the difference between site-specific wine and a broader commercial blend.

Planning Your Visit

Address: 1697 S NC Highway 150, Lexington, NC 27295
Tasting Room Hours: Friday 4pm – 8pm, Saturday 12pm – 5:30pm, Sunday 1pm – 5pm

Wines are available for tasting by the bottle every weekend, with select wines also poured by the glass, and the winery hosts occasional live music and food truck events — worth checking their social channels before you go. Beyond the tasting room, the grounds hold genuine local history: the foundation stones of the old Red House Inn, where George Washington is said to have once dined; a cave where Daniel Boone reportedly took shelter; and a centuries-old millstone visitors can still turn by hand. The restored Curran Alexander Snider farmhouse — four bedrooms, each with its own bathroom — is also available to book for a stay, and the property regularly hosts weddings under its 3,500-square-foot tent or in the newer tasting room, both of which can seat well over a hundred guests.

A few practical notes we have learned from bringing groups here: because the tasting room only opens Friday through Sunday, it works best as a weekend-tour stop rather than a weekday one, so plan your route around its hours rather than the other way around. The property rewards a slower visit — between the tasting room, the historical landmarks scattered across the grounds, and the view of the working farm, we recommend budgeting at least an hour to ninety minutes here, longer if your group wants to walk the property.

Where Curran Alexander Fits in Your Tour Route

Curran Alexander sits in the southern end of the Yadkin Valley AVA, near Lexington in Davidson County — the same corner of the valley as Childress Vineyards, Junius Lindsay Vineyard and Weathervane Winery, which makes it easy to pair with any of those three on a single day trip rather than trying to cross the whole valley. Coming down from the High Country, this cluster works well as either the first stop of the day or the last, depending on which direction you are headed.

Plan on roughly 1.5 hours per winery plus drive time between stops. Because Curran Alexander only opens in the afternoon on Fridays and doesn’t open until noon on weekends, it pairs best as a mid-afternoon or evening stop rather than the first winery of the morning.

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Ashe County Livery provides luxury wedding transportation, wine tour shuttles, and airport transfers throughout North Carolina’s High Country.

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