The Vineyards

A Jewel in the Rough

When world renowned enologist Andre Tchelistcheff discovered what would later become DAOU Mountain, high in the west hills of Paso Robles, he described the land as “a jewel of ecological elements” as he found it to be the perfect soil and climate for growing world class grapes. In 1964, Dr. Stanley Hoffman purchased a 1,200 acre ranch and, with the assistance of Tchelistcheff, planted the first vines. This founded Hoffman Mountain Ranch Winery, the first modern commercial winery in Paso Robles. Dr. Hoffman’s Cabernet Sauvignon earned high accolades in the United States and across the globe, helping to establish Paso Robles as a premier grape growing region.

Georges and Daniel Daou have continued Tchelistcheff and Hoffman’s vision and now have close to 50 acres under vine, placing their focus firmly on Bordeaux varietals.


DAOU mountain's unique location is ideal for growing premium quality grapes.

Cultivation: Making the Wine in the Vineyard

DAOU Mountain’s special characteristics make it one of the most unique vineyard locations in California. The Santa Lucia Mountain range in the Paso Robles AVA is highly regarded for its unique vine cultivation qualities. Here, the combination of southeast and southwest orientation, 2,200 foot elevation, steep slopes (ranging from 20% to 50%), cooler microclimate, marine influence from the renowned Templeton Gap and ideal calcareous soils create the perfect conditions to grow exceptionally high quality fruit. For most of the summer, DAOU Mountain’s vineyards stand above the frequent morning fog line, allowing them all-day access to the nourishing sunshine.

But winemakers need more than a perfect microclimate to create great wines. The vines must also be painstakingly managed throughout their existence, and it is here that DAOU Mountain differs from most other vineyards in California.

• Clones: The clones selected and grown for DAOU are very rare in California. For example, DAOU is certainly the only vineyard in Paso to plant the original To Kalon clone 31, known to yield some of the smallest crops and highest quality berries in the wine world.
• Density: Up to 2,480 vines are planted per acre. In some places the spacing is 6 x 3 feet, in others 6.5 x 3 feet and others it is 7 x 2.5 feet. This is among the highest-density planting in California.
• Cordons: Growing vines on 18 inch cordons instead of the standard 32 inches makes for a more difficult harvest and cultivation, but the increased canopy – twice the normal size – allows increased photosynthesis. Imagine, all that energy going into only twelve clusters.
• Pruning: The vines are pruned to allow for only twelve clusters per vine, with up to 80% of the fruit dropped in some years. This is an astonishingly low yield compared to most vineyards, with each vine producing, at most, one bottle of wine. You might call this the lowest yield in the wine world. • “Blood Pressure”: Leaves are routinely flushed with nitrogen to ascertain vigor and moisture content so that deficit irrigation can take place only when the vine is in danger of shutting down. In some years, the vines are dry farmed.

 

High density plantings on limestone soils

Post-Harvest: Helping the Wine into the Bottle

Once Daniel has virtually made the wine in his vineyards there are several more crucial steps he can take to ensure that the DAOU wines will meet his own very exacting expectations. As with the cultivation, some of these steps might be considered drastic. Not to Daniel. He believes that the Adelaida hills can produce age worthy cabernet that will rival any in California. Virtually the only other wines produced in this painstaking fashion are first-growth Bordeaux.

• Picking: All the grapes are hand-picked and hand-sorted at DAOU. It takes about one hour to hand-sort one ton of grapes. The standard yield is about 165 gallons per ton – at DAOU the yield per ton is 80 to 100 gallons.
• Warm Maceration: Unlike most wineries, when the wine goes dry (i.e. there is no more sugar), Daniel is not finished making the wine. Instead, he now begins to create the profile and identity of the wine. To do so, difficult steps are taken to macerate the wine on the skins for up to three weeks in order to break down the tannins and create an age-worthy wine with the structure and elegance of first-growth French wines. No pressed wine, which could contain astringent flavors and harsher tannins, is ever blended into the DAOU labeled wines. All the DAOU red wines are made from 100% free run juice.
• Aging: All the estate wines are aged in one hundred percent new French oak barrels, selected by the best cooperages in France. Reserve wines are aged in up to seventy percent new French oak while the Paso Robles Collection is aged in twenty-five to fifty percent new French oak barrels.