Coming from the exemplary 2020 vintage, this DAOU Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon truly highlights Paso Robles as a world-class region for Bordeaux-style wines. And at a price that is more affordable than many of the great wines from Bordeaux in particular.
Classic aromas of blackberry, currant and pipe tobacco with more subtle notes of cranberry, baking spices, licorice, slate and dark chocolate. When you taste, you experience the wine’s fullness and velvety layers with a firm, underlying structure. Sumptuous impressions of blueberries, black raspberries, wild cherries and blackcurrants are beautifully integrated with touches of truffles, dried herbs and forest floor. Super elegant and with a persistent finish that lingers with impressions of sweet cherries, black plums and mushrooms. Although ready already, this is a Cabernet Sauvignon that will continue to develop with grace and nuance.
Aged for 16 months in 50% new oak barrels.
94 POINTS
Robert Parker
The 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is a barrel sample of free-run Cabernet Sauvignon (75%) and Petit Verdot (25%), matured for 16 months in 50% new oak. Still youthfully coiled, it hints at blueberry fruit with swirls of graphite, soy sauce and exotic spices. The medium-bodied palate is velvety in texture, savory in character and finishes with uplifting acidity.
92 POINTS
Vinous
Reviewed by Josh Reynolds
Opaque ruby. Deep-pitched blueberry and cassis aromas are complemented by suggestions of mocha, pipe tobacco and allspice. Gently chewy and broad on the palate, offering appealingly sweet black and blue fruit flavors that take on a smoky nuance with aeration. Velvety tannins add shape to the long, smooth finish, which strongly echoes the blue fruit and spice notes. 50% new French oak.
About DAOU
It all began when Joseph and Marie Daou were married in Lebanon. Beirut was then known as the Paris of the Middle East, a modern and cosmopolitan city, and Joseph Daou ran one of the most successful furniture companies in the entire Middle East. Daniel grew up here, together with his brother Georges and the two sisters Marie Jo and Michelle. After many visits to their grandfather’s olive groves, they fell in love with a rural lifestyle. In 1973, however, civil war broke out and a missile landed on the pavement in front of the family’s home, sending shrapnel through the house. After two years of repairs, physical as well as psychological, the war escalated and the family fled to France. Cannes became the destination and it was here, surrounded by vineyards, that Daniel and Georges found their love for wine.
In the early 1980s, however, they moved to the United States, where they started a computer company, far from vines and terroir. It was only in 1998, when the brothers sold the company, that an old dream with roots in France took over: It was time to open a winery. The brothers looked for the best terroir for Cabernet Sauvignon and found DAOU Mountain – a mountain that Russian oenologist André Tchelistcheff had called a jewel decades before. In the years after Prohibition in the United States, he was one of the country’s most influential winemakers, so it was something the brothers took seriously. They therefore bought the old Hoffman Mountain Ranch, which had produced good wines with the help of Tchelistcheff in particular, and set it up.
On the mountain, they found the same soil as in Saint-Émilion, with limestone and calcareous clay – perfect for Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux varieties. The mountain has slopes of up to 56% and is cooled by the nearby Pacific Ocean. In true American fashion, the brothers don’t put their lights under a bushel and call the climate the best in the world for Bordeaux varieties and Cabernet Sauvignon. Also better than Bordeaux.
The yeast from DAOU Mountain is used in more than 30 countries worldwide
Daniel Daou was one of the first to bring Cabernet clones to Paso Robles and planted many vines on steep slopes. With a scientific approach, he created his own phenolic system, which ensures some of the most intensely colored, aromatic and ageable Bordeaux-based wines in the world. After cultivating hundreds of wild yeast spores from DAOU Mountain, he isolated one yeast that ensures excellent wines that thrive in high temperatures – and to this day, DAOU Mountain yeast is used in more than 30 countries around the world.
From the beginning, Daniel Daou focused 100% on French oak casks, but soon he wanted to create his own casks from rare French Rosé Bois woods with pink wood and barrels from trees in Jupille. Dishes which are considered to be some of the finest and rarest in the world. The innovation does not stop here, however, and 4-6 times a year Daniel conducts various experiments to achieve new vinous heights.
Ten years ago, Paso Robles was known for Zinfandel and Rhone grapes, while world-class Cabernet sounded a bit like hubris. Nevertheless, DAOU Mountain’s first Soul of a Lion scored 96 points in Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and made it clear that Paso Robles should be watched when it came to California – and not just Napa Valley.
Today perhaps the best Cabernet comesis on the Central Coast from DAOU Mountain – wines that like to measure themselves against the best in the world. At the same time, the rest of Paso Robles has opened its eyes to Cabernet and other Bordeaux varieties to such an extent that 57% of Paso Robles is now planted with those grapes. Today, Daniel is somewhat of a champion of Cabernet in Paso Robles, sharing his experiences with friends and neighbors in the Paso Robles CAB Collective, working to mark the area among the world’s elite.
