DAOU Mountain rises 2,200 feet above the Adelaida District, the highest winery on California’s Central Coast. The brothers who built it, Georges and Daniel Daou, bet on Cabernet Sauvignon when almost everyone around them was planting Rhône grapes, and that bet helped reshape what Paso Robles is known for.

From Beirut to a mountain in Paso

The Daou story does not start in wine. Georges and Daniel Daou were born in Lebanon, and their childhood in Beirut was cut short in 1973 when the opening of the country’s civil war sent shrapnel through the family home and seriously injured both brothers. The family emigrated to Paris and later to southern France, where the vineyards around them planted an idea that would take decades to bear fruit.

The brothers came to the United States to study engineering at the University of San Diego, graduated at the top of their classes, and built a successful networking-technology company. With that behind them, they turned back to the dream from southern France and went looking for the right place to make wine.

Finding the mountain

Daniel, the winemaker, was searching for one thing in particular: calcareous clay soils, the kind that give structure and tension to Cabernet. The search led to Paso Robles, and in 2007 the brothers acquired the mountain that would carry their name. Decades earlier the legendary winemaker André Tchelistcheff had walked the property and called it a jewel of ecological elements.

DAOU Mountain rises to 2,200 feet on the west side of the Paso Robles AVA, with slopes as steep as fifty-six percent and limestone-rich calcareous clay soils. The elevation pulls the vineyard above the valley heat into cooler air and brighter light, and the views from the top reach across the Coastal Range.

Paso Robles is Cabernet country

When DAOU was founded in 2007, Rhône grapes dominated Paso Robles, accounting for more than sixty percent of plantings. Despite skepticism from their peers, the Daou brothers planted Cabernet Sauvignon on their mountain estate and made a bold declaration: Paso Robles is Cabernet country. The years proved them right. Today Cabernet Sauvignon makes up close to sixty percent of the region’s plantings, and DAOU is one of the names most responsible for the shift.

The wines

The flagship is Soul of Lion, a mountain-grown Bordeaux blend named for the brothers’ father. Below it sits a tiered range of Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux-variety wines, from estate bottlings to widely available labels that introduced a generation of drinkers to Paso Cabernet. The house style is built around ripe mountain fruit, firm limestone-driven structure, and polish.

Visiting DAOU

The hilltop tasting room at 2777 Hidden Mountain Road sits about eight miles west of downtown Paso Robles, with panoramic views over the Adelaida District and the Coastal Range. Seated tastings and food are offered at the summit, and reservations are strongly recommended given the setting and the climb. It is one of the most dramatic places to taste anywhere on the Central Coast.

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