DAOU Soul of a Lion 2021
Daou Soul of a Lion 2021
It’s quite a name for a wine. It’s a blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc and 6% Petit Verdot, and it was matured in 100% new French oak. It’s grown on Daou’s exquisite mountain-top vineyard. The Daou website quotes founder Daniel Daou thus: “My purpose is to create a pure expression of this terroir – to allow this Mountain to speak through the wines that come from it.” I’ll let Daniel Daou’s following words – also from the Daou website – do the talking from here: “Daniel’s commitment to 100% French Oak barrels was a great start – but his relentless pursuit of excellence led him to create his own custom barrels from the most iconic forests in France. His proprietary five year bois rose barrel, made from a rare pink wood that comes from incredibly rare trees, and his Jupille forest barrel are lauded as some of the most rare and the finest barrels available.”
DAOU, in Paso Robles/California, owned now by Treasury Wine Estates, is quite a place. If you’re anywhere near the area, I’d urge you to visit. Or read here.
This is a more-is-more wine, it’s ultra-American, and with those provisos it’s quite fantastic, so long as you’re prepared to go with that flow. It’s tannic, chocolatey, leathery, curranty, infused with herbs, redcurrants and mints, coffee and blackberry jam. Daou describe this as “our blood sweat and tears wine”. This is warm, rich and oak-laden but in its style it’s balanced, powerful and long. It has a vanilla creaminess but character still manages, arguably, to prevail. What I did really like about this wine was/is its minerally tannin. It’s smoky and seductive in its own way, and distinct.
95 points – Campbell Mattinson.
See also [Inside the Soul of a Lion: Treasury’s controversial AU$1.6 Billion bet on Daou Vineyards]
