Clean, glowing white onyx imported from Mexico formed the gorgeous tasting bar that introduced me to DAOU Vineyards and Winery. Delightful taste treats of fine cheeses, home-roasted pistachios, quince and delicious, earthy green olives i...
Clean, glowing white onyx imported from Mexico formed the gorgeous tasting bar that introduced me to DAOU Vineyards and Winery. Delightful taste treats of fine cheeses, home-roasted pistachios, quince and delicious, earthy green olives in their own oil were placed to my right. Daniel Daou approached, smiled warmly, and proceeded to not only wow me with his wines, but he also conveyed his winemaking passion and philosophy with precision, depth and best of all, contagion.
Daniel presides over an amazingly gorgeous setting on his mountaintop vineyards and facility in Paso Robles. The higher elevation of his vineyards means his grapes develop in temperatures an average of almost 10 degrees lower than the sometimes-oppressive heat of some other regions in the Paso AVA. In fact, Daniel likens the DAOU climate with that of Oakville in Napa (and, as you will see below, that is one of his favorite AVAs), and the calcerous soils around him with those of France.
Daniel does not add acid to his fermenting grapes, as his vines per acre are almost 3.5 times what others nearby have, while his clusters per vine are two to three times smaller. He believes these factors combine to allow proper ripeness and vine stress, which results in soft tannins and solid acid levels. Additionally, he pays a hefty electric bill to keep his cellar at a frosty 50 degrees so that the chill, not the normal addition of extra sulfites, keeps any unwanted bacteria from spoiling his wine during barrel aging. Finally, Daniel even managed to make a long conversation about cabernet clones pretty riveting.
I sampled a number of his wines and will report on those later, but suffice it to say, his passion is obvious in his 100% free run whites and reds. They dazzled.
Let’s get to know more about Daniel….
http://winetable.com/blog/winemaker-in-the-spotlight-daniel-daou/
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