Casa Privada is a place, behind two locked gates on a private road in Dry Creek Valley. I remember first visiting the vineyard, when I didn’t have the gate codes, I had to park my car and hop the fences to get to the vineyard. The vineyard opens up in this clearing, about a 1/2 mile in. Casa Privada has more severe undulation than its neighboring vineyards, causing the vines to offer up a wider variety of ripeness zones, the higher parts of the vineyard tend to be riper than the lowest parts.

The 2019 Vintage, despite heat waves, was later ripening for Cabernet Sauvignon in Dry Creek Valley. The 2019 vintage saw much longer hang times overall. The Casa Privada harvest started and concluded on October 24, much later than expected; even with temperatures climbing to over 90 degrees in October. Additionally, the pH level on this vineyard held better over this longer period of time, 3.28 on October 13, which was a blessing, considering all of the power outages and blackouts during the 2019 harvest season, it was nearly impossible to drive to the vineyard, much less process the fruit at the winery with little power. Power was being provided by backup generators, to operate only essential machinery and equipment. And then everything came together by October 24th; evacuations for our area were lifted, the power was on and I harvested. The pH rose to just over 3.45 and the Brix were at a magical 24.2°, both contributing to the moderate alcohol and age-worthiness of this splendid example of Dry Creek Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.