The Crown Jewel of the Darioush estate, Darius II captures the diverse and exquisite beauty within each vintage.
The first towns and cities in history grew up along the Silk Roads, where great empires exchanged goods, ideas, languages, and faiths across the thousands of miles that linked the Pacific and Mediterranean with Central Asia and Persia.
The 14th-century textile selected to adorn 2016 Darius II exemplifies this rich history and cultural exchange. Woven in Iran with silk and gold thread using a traditional 2-person drawloom, it reflects design influences from the Far East and Italy. Luxurious fabrics were a staple commodity in international trade at this time, this textile was destined for Europe where it was fashioned into a ceremonial church garment which ensured its preservation, making it one of the largest surviving 14th-century Iranian textiles of its kind.
The Crown Jewel of the Darioush estate, Darius II captures the diverse and exquisite beauty within each vintage.
Derived from a 14th C. AD painted tile, the art adorning 2012 Darius II highlights the evolution of ancient decorative art and architecture. Its infinite shapes and lively color are reminiscent of the ornament of the First Persian Empire, where elaborate palaces throughout the city of Persepolis were decorated in prominent blues, reds, blacks and yellows on glazed tiles.
The pyramidal pattern pays further homage to the grand Ziggurats of the 3rd millennium BC, which housed intricate temples for kings and deities.
The Crown Jewel of the Darioush estate, Darius II captures the diverse and exquisite beauty within each vintage.
The art adorning 2014 Darius II depicts the tradition of the Saghi, or Wine Bearer, an influential and heralded position in the ancient Persian royal courts, among aristocrats, in wine houses and in mystical and religious traditions over a thousand years old. The Saghi were experts in the art and custom of hospitality, hosting and wine service.
More, they were bearers of knowledge and inspiration, confidantes, muses and guides — embodying mysticism and beauty, a reflection of the Divine. In her beauty and wisdom, the Saghi possessed transcendent often angelic qualities, representing the fleeting nature of life and embodying the intoxicating and enlightening effects of wine.
Described as originally hanging in the Shah’s palace in Tehran and painted by an unknown artist in the early 1800s, the artwork was acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1876.
The Crown Jewel of the Darioush estate, Darius II captures the diverse and exquisite beauty within each vintage.
From London’s Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection of Middle Eastern arts, the 2019 Darius II label features a striking example of a luxury textile from 16th century Bursa, considered the epicenter of the silk-weaving industry at the time. Fabrics of this caliber were destined to become diplomatic gifts for dignitaries, ambassadors, and religious figures from the Far East to Europe.
This specific work depicts an ogival design outlined by trails of blossoms woven in precious metallic threads. The lattice pattern is punctuated with a beautiful pomegranate motif— a treasury of symbolism that transcends time and place, cultures, and religions. Emblematic of fertility and everlasting life due to its abundance of seeds, the pomegranate is an icon of unity, and in ancient Persia it symbolized the soul’s immortality and the perfection of nature.
The remarkable 2021 vintage celebrates Darioush’s 25th anniversary and bottling of Signature Cabernet Sauvignon. After decades of meticulous vineyard management, our estate vineyards spanning Southern Napa Valley and high atop Mount Veeder have hit their stride, producing fruit with splendid concentration, compelling freshness, and graceful complexity.
The hallmark of Darioush Signature Chardonnay is its progressive style of integrating precision, richness, and complexity. Grown from the winery estate and renowned Chardonnay vineyards of Los Carneros, these cooler Southern Napa Valley climes exhibit quintessential varietal characteristics while preserving inherent freshness and vibrancy.
The unique terroir of our rocky, higher-elevation Mount Veeder estate combines a cool, marine-influenced climate with exceptional sun exposure to naturally develop Cabernet Franc’s inherently earthbound, spice and black fruit flavors. This classic Bordeaux variety possesses both power and poise, and contributes layered, concentrated, earthen and fruit flavors to our Signature Cabernet Sauvignon each year.
Darioush Signature Shiraz is crafted to coax the inherent complexity, structure, and age-worthiness from this versatile variety. Southern Napa Valley’s cooler microclimates, along with meticulous vineyard management, naturally restrain vigor while intensifying its rich, spicy, and soulful character.
The hallmark of Darioush Signature Cabernet Sauvignon is its seamlessness, the result of decades of meticulous vineyard management of our cooler climate, Southern Napa Valley sites. Our estate vineyards in the Mount Veeder and Napa Valley AVAs have hit their stride, producing fruit with splendid concentration, compelling freshness and graceful complexity. Striking a tightrope balance of youthful energy, structure and restraint; the final composition, our flagship wine, rewards with extraordinary depth and poise.
Aromatic complexity and typicity is the hallmark of Darioush Signature Merlot. Our meticulous vineyard practices, the unique microclimates and soils from our Southern Napa Valley vineyards atop Mount Veeder and on the valley floor naturally restrict, concentrate, and carefully ripen this noble Bordeaux variety to coax a plush yet focused wine.
In 2019, the virtues of old-vine Malbec grown from our estate vineyards in Mount Veeder and Oak Knoll, along with our partner Larkmead Vineyards in Calistoga compelled us to craft a singular, elegant offering of Darioush Signature Malbec. This is the fourth bottling of Darioush Malbec, following the 2015, 2014 and 2009 vintages.
Signature Pinot Noir is a vineyard-driven wine sourced since 2003 from a small, unique parcel in one of the most cherished micro-regions in the Russian River Valley. Ideally suited for Pinot Noir, the predominant soil type is Goldridge, derived from an ancient inland sea that slowly emptied into the Pacific Ocean. Its excellent drainage and low soil fertility allow us to create a balanced vineyard ecosystem yielding exceptional, high-quality fruit without irrigation. The vineyard’s gently sloping southeastern exposure combined with 35+ year vine age yield poised, complex and age-worthy wines.
An intriguing and rare bottling of 2019 Signature Napa Valley Red
Wine - a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and
Petit Verdot with a small portion of Shiraz.
Fragrant, alluring, and exotic, Viognier is a rarity in Napa Valley. Darioush Signature Viognier expresses its inherently bright and vibrant character when grown from the cooler locales of Oak Knoll where dense early morning fog and late afternoon breezes allow this delicate variety to ripen slowly and completely. The hallmark of Signature Viognier is its effusive aromatics and core of juicy stone fruit.
Our latest release of Sage Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc is sourced from three small blocks nestled between 1800 - 2100 feet on our Mount Veeder vineyard estate. Mount Veeder is the most temperate of the mountainside Napa Valley AVA’s, its southernmost location, the marine influence of the nearby San Pablo Bay, moderate sun exposure and varied topography result in cool pockets at high elevations. These microclimates provide the ideal conditions for gradual ripening and flavor development; Signature Sauvignon Blanc shows remarkable brightness, purity, and refinement.
Duel is the idyllic marriage of two distinguished varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. This unique blend varies year to year, seeking to harmonize the deep satisfying fruit and earthy minerality of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz’s vibrancy and exotic spice. Duel is a wine with style, soul, and substance.
A personal endeavor, this naturally-crafted 100% estate-grown Shiraz is a tribute to my pedar, or father. Crafted in the simple techniques I observed as a child, Pedar is a wine with great saturation, complexity, and intrigue. Above all, it embodies the joy one realizes when doing things with love.
This rare and extremely limited wine is made only when nature’s good fortune allows the harvesting of grapes affected with botrytis cinerea, or noble rot. The white grapes destined for this wine were still on the vine in mid-November, slowly dehydrating and accumulating the noble rot essential for achieving its exquisitely rich honey and apricot profile.
Darioush Signature Shiraz is crafted to coax the inherent complexity, structure, and age-worthiness from this versatile variety. Southern Napa Valley’s cooler microclimates, along with meticulous vineyard management naturally restrain vigor while intensifying its rich, spicy and soulful character.
Caravan shares the pedigree of Darioush’s Signature wines, but displays more ripe, saturated fruit with an elegantly textured finish. Caravan is anchored in Cabernet Sauvignon with lesser amounts of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and/or Malbec and Petit Verdot added for depth and complexity of flavor.
The unique terroir of our rocky, higher-elevation Mount Veeder estate combines a cool, marine-influenced climate with exceptional sun exposure to naturally develop Cabernet Franc’s inherently earthbound, spice and black fruit flavors. This classic Bordeaux variety possesses both power and poise, and contributes layered, concentrated, earthen and fruit flavors to our Signature Cabernet Sauvignon each year.
The hallmark of Darioush Signature Cabernet Sauvignon is its seamlessness, the result of decades of meticulous vineyard management of our cooler climate, Southern Napa Valley sites. Our estate vineyards in the Mount Veeder and Napa Valley AVAs have hit their stride, producing fruit with splendid concentration, compelling freshness, and graceful complexity. The final composition strikes a tightrope balance of youthful energy, structure, and restraint; our flagship wine rewards with extraordinary depth and poise.