“This terroir in Paso is part of our destiny... This place here was just dirt when we arrived, there was no water, no electricity and it didn’t even appear on Google Maps.” – Daniel Daou, on the Daou brothers' 200 acres of vines spread across Paso Robles, California's Adelaida Hills.

DAOU vineyards is widely recognised as a member of California's most well-regarded luxury wine producers and an exciting contemporary counterpart to the more traditional Napa Valley classics.

With the recent launch of DAOU wines in Singapore, I had the opportunity to attend a pairing luncheon hosted by Neb Lukic, the President of Luxury Sales and Marketing at Treasury Wine Estates - Americas, to experience these highly anticipated wines firsthand. But before we turn to nosing and sipping, let's go into the origins of DAOU which is pretty much a story of faith, grit and rewriting what’s possible in winemaking and in life.

The story begins in 1973, but we're not yet with the founders of DAOU. Up in the hills of Paso Robles was the Hoffman Mountain Ranch, established by Stanley Hoffman, an early pioneer of bringing Pinot Noir to California. Hoffman was incredibly passionate and keen about the burgeoning winemaking scene in California, and was deeply involved since the 1960's. By the 70's he was seriously convinced that the Hoffman Mountain Ranch would produce some of the best wines possible.

Cover of Wines & Vines featuring Andre Tschelistcheff with Stanley Hoffman (in red sweater); vignettes of the once Hoffman Mountain Ranch. (Image Source: Wine History Project)

Stanley Hoffman was not alone in his belief - the legendary winemaker Andre Tschelistcheff (considered to be the Father of Californian winemaking) had concurred, calling the place "a jewel of ecological elements". There Hoffman would build out the early innings of California's modern winemaking era, fitting out the winery with the first gravity flow system in America, as well as bringing it up to a commercial scale the likes of which had not been seen in Paso Robles.

The Daou family moved from Lebanon to France, leaving everything behind. (Right) Joseph Daou, for whom the DAOU Vineyards' Soul of a Lion pays homage to.

That very same year, all the way in Beirut, the Daou family's lives were about to be completely upturned. It was the start of the Lebanese Civil War and the first missiles had just been launched, with one of them exploding right at the Daou family's home. The blast would seriously injure the Daou brothers, with Georges sent into a coma and Daniel permanently paralysed on parts of his face. The moment the family recovered sufficiently, they would quickly flee to France, thanks to their mother, whom the brothers describe affectionately as their family's "Bodyguard" – more on this later. Their mother, Marie, was a French citizen who grew up in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, her family having ran a department store on the island, whilst also owning parcels of ancient olive groves in Lebanon where the Daou children played in and grew up around. On one such vacation to Lebanon, Marie would meet Joseph Daou and the two would fall quickly in love and be married just two weeks later - who could blame her, Joseph was 1951's Mr Lebanon and would go on to start a successful furniture factory. Nevertheless with the advent of the Lebanese Civil War, Marie and Joseph would make the painful decision to leave everything behind and move the family to Paris, before eventually moving again to Cannes.

Georges and Daniel Daou.

As the Daou siblings grew up, Georges and Daniel would both find themselves excited over computers which were just becoming a thing then. Georges, the older of the two brothers, would be the first to make his way to the US, having received an admission letter from University of California San Diego, where he would study electrical engineering. He would later send over a computer to Daniel as a gift, which inspired him to also study at UC San Diego, earning himself a degree in computer engineering. Yet, the brothers were not out of the woods yet - numerous times midway through their studies, they would face financial pressures that threatened to send them back to France. Nevertheless the brothers would turn this into motivation to quickly start making money that would allow them to complete their studies. Applying their engineering knowledge and gambling the last of the money they had, they would build out an intranet and computer networking system for hospitals, which would go on to be named Daou Systems. With a whole lot of effort and ten years, Daou Systems would eventually be acquired, allowing the brothers to retire comfortably at the age of 32 and 36.

With quite some time left on their hands, it seemed opportune then for Daniel to revisit something that he'd sat on for quite some time - "I was an engineer, but I really wanted to be a farmer" says Daniel. His time spent in France had left a deep impact on him, "My dad drunk a bottle of wine every day. He loved Bordeaux and Cabernet Sauvignon in particular. I heard him talk about life, family, philosophy: all the things that inspire my brother and I today... and I came to the realization in my mid-20's that my true calling was to be a winemaker, to the shock of my family. Our grandparents had a huge olive farm, and we had the best memories going there, picking olives and chasing cows and chickens. After I retired from my company there was no question in my mind that I wanted to make a top class Cabernet Sauvignon." said Daniel to Jamie Goode of Wineanorak.

Georges (left) with Daniel (right).

Daniel would thus spend the next 8 years scouring the globe for the perfect place to produce his Bordeaux-styled wines. Being the engineer that he was, Daniel had taken a highly methodical approach. He had determined that the best vineyards in Europe shared a similar type of soil, one that was of argile calcaire, which made dry farming possible, something that then impossible in California. He had also found that the wines of Europe that he had enjoyed displayed earthiness and minerality, whilst those in California were highly climate driven, "In Bordeaux, you don’t always achieve ripeness. You’re tasting 80 percent soil and 20 percent climate. California cabernets lack minerality—you’re tasting 20 percent soil and 80 percent climate.” says Daniel.

“Paso Robles? Is that in Texas?”

As it turns out Daniel's search would take him to the very site that was once the Hoffman Mountain Ranch, located along the barren slopes of the Paso Robles mountains, just halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Despite its promising start, having gotten as close as possible to any sort of anointment by Californian wine's best and brightest, Andre Tschelistcheff, and having been outfitted with some of the best equipment of the time, it was nevertheless not meant to be - Hoffman would face financial difficulties into the 80's that forced him to sell the winery, which would swap hands several more times before being eventually abandoned and forgotten altogether. That was until Daniel had found this ecological gem once again.

Nevertheless the early forays into winemaking at Paso Robles did solidify one thing - that it was great land for Rhone varietals. In the 70's and 80's, other winemakers besides Hoffman too had zoned in on the location. Famously one such winemaker was John Alban of the highly esteemed Alban Vineyards, who had made a name for himself as one of California's Rhone Rangers - folks who were bringing France's Rhone varieties of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre, to California, was on a drive around the area, and had stopped to admire the vineyards, eventually persuading its owners to forgo California's more popular Zinfandel for Rhone varietals instead. With time, it would become a matter of heuristics - Napa Valley was for Cabernet, Santa Barbara for Pinot Noir, and Paso Robles for Rhone varieties.

And thus in 2007, Daniel would inform Georges that he had found the perfect spot - what was formerly Hoffman Mountain Ranch, in the mountains of Paso Robles - to which Georges had asked if Paso Robles was somewhere in Texas. The brothers would eventually purchase the parcel, which came to be known as DAOU Mountain. Situated at 650 metres above sea level, the parcel was all of 280 hectares spanning the steep limestone and clay slopes, which were constantly cooled by oceanic breezes coming in from the Pacific Ocean just 14 miles west from the mountain.

“When we talk about the terroir in California, we’re not usually talking about European soil, yet here we have the soils that you would expect to find in Bordeaux or Burgundy. The soil here in this small corner of Paso is unique, it is clay-based, with an underlying layer of calcareous soil. Clay is common in wine regions across California, but they don’t have the calcareous soils underneath. That’s the key, because it adds a sense of minerality, which is missing from many of the jammier California wines. These are the only soils that really provide what I have been talking about. In warmer climates like California you reach your physiological ripeness at higher sugars if you don’t have these soils. By the time physiological ripeness occurs you have lost your acid and you are forced to add a ton of tartaric acid to bring down the pH and stabilize the wine. In my opinion, you take away the innate balance and end up with a wine that’s lab manufactured and bites you at the back of the jaw and scratches you in the throat. All these things drove me to look for these soils, but the only problem with these soils is that they don’t exist in California. The only place you find them is on the west side of Paso Robles in the Adelaida district. This is where we are located. I wanted to make unadulterated wines. I didn’t want to acidify the wine. I wanted to make as natural a wine as possible, and these soils allow you to do that.

Climate is the other component of terroir. The climate in California is warm. It’s warmer than France, and many parts of Europe. It’s like a bell curve, though: you want to be warm enough to ripe every year, but you don’t want to be too hot so you achieve high alcohols and jammy character. You also don’t want to be too cold and rainy, so you have pyrazines and you also only have two good vintages out of 10. So the key was to find a climate that was somewhere between Pauillac and Napa. That is exactly what we found. Our vineyard is the only one in California that is at 2,200 feet elevation, but only 14 miles from the cold Pacific Ocean. In 2019, Pauillac saw 4 days at 40 C. Napa saw 11 days. Paso Robles saw 28 days. Our mountain saw zero. Our average maximum temperature is right between Pauillac and St Helena. It’s the perfect climate to achieve ripeness year after year." explained Daniel to Jamie Goode at Wineanorak. Georges also mentions in addition, "With our calcareous soils and a climate like Saint Helena, you are tasting 50 percent soil and 50 percent climate."

Indeed, these limestone-rich soils are porous, behaving like a sponge that allows vine roots to delve deeply, accessing water reserves that impart natural minerality and refreshing acidity to the grapes.

“I searched the globe, but ended up finding a place close to home.”

Whilst conventional wisdom and history would suggest Rhone varietals (or at the least Zinfandel), the Daou's were intent on a more Bordeaux-styled Cabernet that was demonstrably Californian. Thus when Daniel first declared his intention back in 2007 to produce "first growth-quality Cabernet Sauvignon" in Paso Robles, the local reaction was dismissive. Skeptics branded him a "crazy Lebanese guy," insisting he'd lose his fortune since Paso Robles was known for Rhône varieties rather than Cabernet Sauvignon.

Yet it's precisely this contrarian approach that helped to put the DAOU Vineyards & Winery on the map as being the first in the region to go all in on Cabernet. Consequently they would build their winery in a Spanish Colonial Mission style that even features a tower that houses a historic 1740 Spanish Mission bell that was imported from Madrid (and is today featured on the label of DAOU's wines) - Daniel would serve as the winemaker with Georges overseeing marketing.

This journey wasn't untaken without trepidation or the occasional anxiety-inducing episode. Neb shared an amusing story of DAOU's first interaction with the esteemed wine critic Robert Parker back in 2013. Daniel, who was travelling at the time, had nervously instructed Georges to host Parker and show him only their most premium wines, like the Soul of the Lion. Georges defiantly also presented their more entry-level Paso Cabernet Sauvignon, hoping for Parker's validation. Parker pronounced them all "excellent," which Georges happily relayed to Daniel over the phone. Upon hearing this, Daniel exclaimed in panic to his brother. "George, you don’t read this shit, I do." He goes, "You know what excellent means? We are screwed!" Excellent sounds positive in casual conversation, but in Parker’s scoring universe, usually maps to the 85–89 point range, which, while still great, isn’t satisfactory in the eyes of producers like DAOU who were trying to break into the top tier.

A month later, Parker’s scores were revealed—Soul of a Lion garnered an impressive 96 points, while even their Paso Cabernet achieved a remarkable 92 points.

Daniel Daou.

Much of the early vineyard work was done by Daniel himself, having hand-planted much of the initial vineyards, opting to farm at high vine density (9,000 vines / ha), with low yields, and with sustainable practices, focusing on predominantly Bordeaux varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot) and a smaller portion of Chardonnay (more recently expanding to Pinot Noir as well). Yet Daniel takes an incredibly precise view on what he wants to achieve - phenolic structure. "There is a subjective way and an objective way at looking at wine quality. The subjective way is a critic looking at a wine. From an objective standpoint, there has always been a direct correlation with higher phenolics and higher quality. If you look at Bordeaux, what is the difference between a good vintage Bordeaux and a bad vintage Bordeaux from the same Château? The good vintage is going to have more colour, a better tannin structure for more ageabilty, and better aroma. All these things can be qualified today as phenolics, and we have the technology to measure them. There is a direct correlation between higher phenolics and better wine. I measured 700 of the best Bordeaux wines made across the world, and we have not found anything at the top of the heap that gets within 30% of what we get on our mountain." says Daniel to Jamie Goode (Wineanorak).

To achieve said best phenolic structure, Daniel's strategy is to then ensure what he calls vine balance. With all vineyard work done by hand, and the vineyards dry farmed or deficit irrigated, Daniel ensure that canopies are hedged to deliver an even photosynthesis and therefore ripening. He reduces yields to 20% of what the vines can carry, and adds on cover crops. He's also leaned into innovative products like BluVite that helps activate microorganisms in the soil that strengthens the vine's immune system, as well as shade cloth that is able to block out 40% of UV rays whilst still allowing light and air through. These measures help to significantly protect the vines from the possibility of disease or heat waves. In doing so, Daniel seeks to achieve a consistent brix sugar level across his fruit, with minimal variations. The vines range between 10-15 years old, where Daniel believes they've been sufficiently aged to provide minerality to the wines.

Once the fruit gets to the cellars, Daniel employs the use of multiple layers of optical sorters to ensure the best fruit, with everything else either fed to the livestock or given away. Yet, whilst minimal intervention in the cellars may have become all the rage, Daniel expectedly is still very much the same engineer who prefers to ensure that every step is measured and precise. In the cellars, he employs a formula he's created where he divides tannins by overall phenolics, where the value has to be under an exact 52%, to achieve the perfect structure - this ensures that DAOU's wines are never over-extracted. Wanting to deliver the same results every single time whilst still encapsulating the terroir, Daniel wanted to isolate the best native wild yeast possible, and thus harvested 100 native yeasts from the DAOU vineyards, which were then sent to Italy for testing - the result was the lab being so impressed with a particular strain, named D20 (it was yeast strain #20), which the researchers even asked the Daou brothers if they were open to sharing the yeast with other wineries. Today the yeast is used in wineries across 35 countries, which the brothers believe allows the once unknown Paso Robles terroir to be spread around the world.

For cellaring, DAOU utilises Bois de Rose French oak barrels, sourced from rare 300-year-old pinkish wood, distinguished by their extremely tight grain. This special oak ensures slow oxygen integration, gently softening tannins and allowing for graceful aging.

Today, close to 20 years since the Daou brothers set foot on the Adelaida Hills of Paso Robles, their flagship Soul of a Lion, so named in homage of their father who left everything behind in Lebanon for their family, has outsold every Napa Valley blue chip wine in California except for just the cult classic Opus One. Yet, despite the staggering demand, the brothers have insisted on curtailing the expansion of the winery, "Today we have 80 hectares planted, and we are in the process of planting another 80 hectares in the next three years, and this will be the max. This is all within a mile of our winery, so it is the same terroir, same elevation and same slopes." says Daniel.

I asked Neb during the luncheon about the estate's concerns on climate change, to which he confidently cited DAOU Mountain's resilience due to its strategic location. Perched at 2,200 feet elevation and just 14 miles from the Pacific Ocean, a climatic gap channels cool maritime breezes nightly, dramatically reducing vineyard temperatures by 15-20°F compared to the valley below. This creates a natural cooling effect – even during intense heat waves like those in 2019, the estate required minimal irrigation despite record heat.

In December 2023, it was announced that Aussie winemaker, Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), best known of course for Penfolds, had acquired the DAOU Vineyards, the fastest growing US wine brand in 2023, for a whopping US$1 billion - the largest deal ever made by TWE.

Getting on to the wines, there are 3 tiers of DAOU wines: the Paso Robles Collection is made with fruit sourced from handselected local vineyards, made in the same manner as DAOU's reserve and estate wines; the Reserve Collection blends DAOU Mountain fruit with fruit from select Paso Robles vineyards, and finally the Estate Collection which focuses only on the use of fruit from DAOU's vineyards on the DAOU Mountain.

Let's turn to the wines we tasted!

Wine Review: DAOU Bodyguard Chardonnay

We began the tasting with the welcome drink – the Bodyguard Chardonnay 2021.

Named as a heartfelt homage to Marie Daou, "Bodyguard" symbolises the strength and safety offered by the founders mother, who helped the family escape to France during the tumultuous Lebanese Civil War.

This is crafted from 100% Chardonnay, matured for 10 months in a balanced blend of new French and American oak, alongside neutral French barrels.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Golden yellow.

Nose: The aroma is rich, firm yet not heavy, marked by good acidity and a bright fruitiness, clear salinity and warm vanilla tones. Very aromatic and cohesive. Immediate presentation of fruity notes without being overly sweet, with quince, gooseberry jam and ripe pears. Then distinct freshly harvested yellow fruits such as golden apples and persimmons. There's a notable flinty minerality adding freshness without becoming overly musky or high-toned. Some subtle hints of yogurt, gentle muskiness, vanilla and animal hide.

Palate: Medium-bodied, rounded, remarkably supple in texture. The Chardonnay is bold with a slightly syrupy core, and yet lightly acidic. Immediately reveals flavours of honey, quince and golden pears, maintaining good richness without heaviness. As the wine warms, its fruit character becomes more clearly evident, revealing musky gooseberry jam, green pears and crisp green apples, with pronounced honeyed elements alongside growing toasty and vanilla notes towards the finish. It's got a nice interplay and compliment between the honeyed yellow fruits and sweet, vanillic toasty oak notes on the one hand, and slight flintiness and acidity on the other hand.

Finish: Seamless, clean and long. The honey gradually recedes, giving way to lingering notes of pear jam and gooseberry jam. Also some nuances of dried hay and a delicate, persistent flintiness.

My Thoughts:

I like how it's a fairly bold Chardonnay, with considerable richness and aromatic depth. It is expressive in its fruit character, yet the acidity and minerality keep its sweetness well-restrained, avoiding this high-toned or overripe feel. The texture is notably supple, and the progression on the palate is seamless and consistent, anchored by a syrupy core that steadily reveals more rich, musky yellow fruit notes before the clean finish nicely underscores the wine's minerality.

Great compliment to bolder seafood dishes like this Snow Crab-topped toast we had at Brasserie Astoria.

Wine Review: DAOU Reserve Chardonnay

Also crafted from exclusively Chardonnay grapes, this 2022 vintage Reserve Chardonnay was aged 11 months in 50% new French oak.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Deeper golden yellow.

Nose: Rich and aromatic, with greater depth, increased minerality, and warm toasted notes with clear hints of nuttiness. There's fruity juiciness as in the Bodyguard Chardonnay, but fruit notes here are distinctly sweeter, moving away from fresh towards baked and dried forms. There's rock melon, poached golden golden pears, apple pie, gooseberry jams, nectarines and golden raisins. I also pick up deeper creamy custard notes with an underlying vanilla scent. Subtle nutty complexity, countered by a prominent minerality and salinity reminiscent of prosciutto. There’s even an unusual fresh ozone air quality, reminding me of airplane cabin air.

Palate: Medium-bodied and rich, yet cleaner and more elegantly developed compared to the Bodyguard Chardonnay. The texture is supple, and it opens immediately with vanilla and a pronounced honeyed core, with smooth vanilla cream gradually taking over, joined by soft notes of passion fruit, golden apples, apricots, golden pears, apple juice and juicy, sappy fruits – gooseberries, mangosteens, jackfruit. A mild toastiness appear, adding layers to the profile. The structure remains mildly acidic and pleasantly dry, marked by gentle notes of pepper and lemon peel. It avoids becoming overly musky or high-toned. The palate also maintains a precise tension and clarity across the notes of baked fruits, cream and mild minerality.

Finish: Acidity slowly recedes, leaving behind honey, bee pollen, maltose candy, vanilla, and fresh cream. Gentle yeasty nuances unfold slowly with candy floss, delicate white and yellow floral notes, yet without tipping into excessive sweetness.

My Thoughts:

This Chardonnay is lively, elegant and beautifully balanced. It integrates pronounced minerality with ripe baked fruit notes, and it feels fresh, juicy, and vividly aromatic, with an evocative a fresh mountain-air quality. While it's less overtly fruity than the Bodyguard, it presents greater depth of this toasted and creamy quality with a structured yet supple character. The finish is also impressively seamless and evocative with honey, cream and candy floss. An pretty phenomenal Chardonnay!

Wine Review: DAOU Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

This is a 2022 vintage barrel selection of wines from the best vineyards across Adelaida district of Paso Robles, showcasing 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged for 18 months in 50% new French oak barrels.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Deep ruby.

Nose: Opulent, plush and floral, with notably well-integrated vanilla tones. Begins with an immediate impression of potpourri – particularly roses, rose custard and rose jam, before transitioning into ripe, concentrated red and black fruits, cherries, fig jam, gentle raspberry jam, stewed prunes and figs. As it opens further, the aroma shifts subtly toward darker herbaceous nuances, liquorice and a slight hint of mocha.

Palate: Medium-bodied and remarkably velvety, the palate has a notably plush fruit character and an impressively smooth, satin-like texture. The tannic structure is clearly present but exceptionally soft and integrated, with prominent roses, raisins and abundant stewed prunes and figs, alongside prune jelly. Oak influence emerges distinctly as mocha and espresso notes, complemented by subtle wet stone minerality reminiscent of the limestone.

Finish: Quite long and seamless, marked by more herbaceous notes reminiscent of Pei Pa Koa syrup, more dried and stewed prunes and figs, with fine yet clearly perceptible tannins, and more lingering nuances of vanilla and mocha. Some dried thyme at the close.

My Thoughts:

This Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is notably plush and juicy while maintaining a pleasing degree of elegance. Tannins are well-defined without becoming overwhelming, accompanied by noticeable stony, chalky mineral notes. It faithfully expresses the distinctive chalky limestone terroir of Paso Robles. It's got a well-crafted structure and could be aged for another decade, yet it's approachable and very enjoyable right now.

Wine Review: DAOU Estate Collection Soul of a Lion

We're now tasting the 2021 vintage of their flagship luxury wine. Its name pays tribute to a piece of advice given by the founders' father, Joseph Daou. In the final year of his life, they'd hired a writer to interview Joseph in order to chronicle his life's story and to document the family's journey coming from Lebanon. Joseph decided that the book should be titled "Soul of a Lion" and he explained that this was an encapsulation of his sincere wish for his children to boldly embrace life's challenges, to "roar back to the soul of life" and "get back up roaring and fighting like a lion" despite adversity.

This particular vintage blends 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot from estate-grown grapes on DAOU Mountain, aged for 22 months in entirely new French oak.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Deep ruby.

Nose: Fresh and distinctly structured, marked immediately by noticeable, inky tannins seemingly detectable even on the nose. It begins with clear notes of black cherries, fresh prunes, plums, blueberry jam, then raspberry compote, fig jam, and stewed figs, along with some subtler tones of roses. Then turns towards darker notes of tobacco, soil, sage and spices, along with graphite and hints of fresh leather. Overall, the nose feels less ripe but very clean, carrying good tension and decent aromatic complexity.

Palate: Medium-bodied, the palate shows moderate concentration, commanding tannins with a dense, elegant texture and vibrant, round tannins. It presents prominent spiced and dried herbal notes alongside prominent red and black fruits, including fresh plums, prunes, rose concentrate, and cherry paste. The fruit profile remains clean and elegant, supported by a refreshing lift.

Finish: Some medicinal, herbal notes reminiscent of Pei Pa Koa syrup once again, along with stewed figs, plums and raisins. Tannins here begin to smoothen out and become less grippy, but the finish still carries notable richness and dryness with some persistent nuances of roses. Oak and mocha becoming more evident towards the end.

My Thoughts:

The Soul of the Lion is really commanding and clearly shows great potential to improve significantly with age. It's got fantastic fruit concentration, already evident despite being still held back by some rather firm and tightly wound tannins, giving it a shy and restrained character with overall austerity at the moment. But with additional time, perhaps another 15 years, this would undoubtably will soften significantly to allow the underlying richness and complexity to fully emerge.

Wine Review: DAOU Estate Collection Patrimony Cabernet Sauvignon

Patrimony represents the Daou brothers' ambition to craft Cabernet Sauvignon that rivals the world's finest. The Patrimony holds the distinction of being the first and only Cabernet to receive 100 points out of the US's Central Coast and is the finest quality Cabernet to be produced by DAOU. According to Neb, this wine came in second place (just behind Hundred Acre) in a blind tasting against other renowned Californian wines including Screaming Eagle, Schrader, Dominus, Hundred Acre and Opus One – a tasting playfully dubbed The Judgment of Paso.

This bottle I'm tasting is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from DAOU’s estate vineyards (typically the case, apart from Cabernet Franc variants) of the 2020 vintage, and had spent approximately 30 months in new French oak.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Deep ruby.

Nose: Incredibly evocative, floral and a nice touch of confectionary aromas. It feels elegant, clean and precise, opening clearly with deep violets and roses, alongside a focused concentration of red and black fruits – pomegranate, raspberry, plum and prune. Distinctive notes of vanilla, burnt brown sugar and even candy floss. With time, it transitions towards deeper, more rustic scents with cedar, cigar boxes, chocolate, toasted spices and subtle herbal hints of fennel and thyme.

Palate: Full-bodied, rich, plush and expressive on the palate. Its texture takes the spotlight here – it's fantastically polished, with a lovely concentration saturation with a compact, structured feel. Clear notes of stewed plums and prunes appear first, complemented by blackberry jam and some dried rose and violets.

Finish: Seamless and plush, marked clearly by more rose petals, stewed plums, prunes, and raisins. Firmer tannins become apparent here, noticeable yet not overly grippy. The finish continues aromatically, gradually revealing clear notes of light custard, liquorice, cacao, mocha and stronger, darker, piney-herbaceous nuances.

My Thoughts:

This wine stands out for its striking aromatic intensity, especially evident in the floral-driven nose, and on he palate, its tannins are impressively rounded and polished, creating a feeling of richness and elegance, yet retaining a very solid structure and a refreshing, lifted quality.

There's clear evidence of a strong, elevated tannic backbone reminiscent of layered Pauillac tannins, with remarkable density and power. However, there's greater expression of fruit concentration and ripeness, with more plush, fruit-driven qualities like blackberry, cassis and plum coming forward more vividly, polished and approachable tannins. In this way, this brings to mind wines from modern, top-tier Left Bank Bordeaux producers that marry depth and power with accessibility and plushness.

Where to Buy DAOU in Singapore

The full selection of DAOU's acclaimed wines is now available in Singapore.

The wines are now available at selected retailers, with the entry selection found at Cold Storage, FairPrice Finest and FairPrice Xtra at prices starting from S$50 for the DAOU Discovery. For those looking for the more premium selections such as the DAOU Reserve, Soul of the Lion and Patrimony, you’ll find them stocked at fine wine retailers such as Crystal Wines, Moomba, Le Rouge, Vivino, and Grand Cru with prices starting from around S$105 for the Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.

Kanpai!

@CharsiuCharlie