Bro Flow

TWO DUDES, THE MOUNTAINS, AND SOME GREAT WINE— BUT IT’S NOT ABOUT SIDEWAYS.

- Jay McInerney

When Daniel and Georges Daou sold their software company and used the money to create a winery, they weren’t exactly inventing a new narrative. That’s the story behind most of the famous cabernet labels in Napa Valley. What makes theirs different is the location: the West Paso Robles region of California’s Central Coast. Although they were far from the first to plant there—Justin, Tablas Creek, L’Aventure, and Saxum were already established—they were among the first to bet big on cabernet in an area best known for Rhône-style blends and zinfandel. That was 10 years ago, so I thought it was time to check in.

Paso Robles is hot, literally and figuratively, with more than 300 wineries—up from about 20 in 1990—turning out an increasingly impressive array of wines. One thing that makes the area special is the subsoil’s high proportion of limestone, great chunks of which are piled up along Vineyard Road, where some of the top wineries are located. Many of France’s most renowned wine regions have the same sort of calcareous clay soil on limestone bedrock, but in California it’s a rarity.

The Daou brothers looked for land in Napa and elsewhere before deciding that West Paso’s combination of climate and soil better suited their ambitions. “What we found here,” Daniel says, sitting on a patio overlooking vineyards, “were French soils and a Napa climate, which we think give us the potential to make the best cabernet in the world.” These guys are nothing if not ambitious.