DARIOUSH WINERY TASTING

We visited Darioush Winery yesterday and tasted the following:

2004 Signature Chardonnay:
lemon, pear, citrus, too much toasty oak. But too tart and imbalanced with bitter tannins

2003 Signature Merlot:
nicely fragrant nose. blueberry, plum, new leather-ish, slight oak. Polished but also with bitter tannins.

2003 Signature Shiraz:
smooth, polished nose and texture. Rich red and black fruits, earthy, spicy, and not as much bitterness in finish as prior two

2002 Signature Cabernet Sauvignon:
rich nose of red and black fruits, earthy, cedar, leather, slight mocha, smooth texture, classic cab-bordeaux style. Soft finish. Wine is new world but coesn't have the extra layers of great new world wines.

Generally, Darioush has designed wines to please those looking for the media-described "Napa Valley Experience." Their wines are competent and the bitter finishes are not likely to be noticed by many.

But even at this level of competency, wines should be priced about $20 less a bottle.

I would say that their wines are like the architecture of the winery, which also received much hoopla in this Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle. Mr. Darioush clearly spent much moola bringing over stone slabs from Iran and trying to evoke a complex from Persepolis. So much promise, and yet the result, like the wines, result in a failure to resonate.

Generally, I'd rate the wines a C+ to B-.

But as a tourist experience, it's worth doing once. (I was going to say, "like Disneyland" but I like Disneyland).