The Lebanese culture that I grew up with is very generous. Hospitality and generosity are very much part of our identity, says Daniel Daou, chief winemaker and cofounder of Daou Vineyards in Paso Robles, California. You can go to Lebanon and you walk on the street and meet somebody, and two minutes later, they invite you to the house and treat you for dinner. I want to feel that, when I make the wines that they are generous.

Daou is everything youd imagine a successful wine wizard to be: personable, passionate and incredibly informed about the nuances of high-quality wine. Charmingly nerdy about the process, he explains the soil sorcery and climate specifics required to create a cabernet sauvignon that tastes clean, mildly fruity and just complex enough. In short, its a lot of science sprinkled with a little bit of magic.

He is also not necessarily who youd imagine if you know who the American wine industry is composed of. Daou was not born into this world; he fell into it, one taste at a time.