Paso Robles is the Californian wine region to watch out for this year

If you’re on an all-out quest to make great cabernet, you might aim for Napa or Bordeaux, but not Daniel Daou. After a decade-long global search for the right plot of land to start growing the grape, he found the ideal combination of soil and climate for his dream in Paso Robles, a land of oak-studded hills and winding back roads, a three-hour drive south of San Francisco.

“Paso,” he says. “has a climate between ...