"Our wine label was carefully designed to
honor our Mama by using the Lo Iodice
family crest, and to honor our Papa with
the use of rich silver for the D'Argenzio
family name."

Like the D'Argenzio artisans before us, our sincerest desire is that you enjoy our creations as much as we enjoy creating them.

We are honored to offer you our family's wines, from our casa to your casa. Salute!

— Dedicated to our Papa, Alfonso A. D'Argenzio

We are very proud to introduce you to our wines

D'Argenzio Winery is a family winery in the truest Italian sense. There are three generations of the D'Argenzio family working together to bring you the finest handcrafted Wines.

Our grapes are grown in the world-class regions of Sonoma County. They are aged from 18- 24 months in new French oak and American oak barrels. With an outstanding growing season in Sonoma Valley, we are primarily producing vintages from two appellations: Dry Creek and Russian River Valleys. Some special vintages hail from the Sonoma Coastal appellation of Green Valley micro area. Also in 2002 we released an excellent Merlot from Rutherford, adding Napa Valley to our repertoire. We also created our first Vino Blanco in 2003, an Italian White called Tocai Friulano. Our case production started at 200 cases in 1998 and is still a modest 2,300 in 2005, which allows us to keep our artisan style of winemaking.

Our wines have received reviews from Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast, Connoisseurs Guide and Pinot Report as well. Our List of Awards grows, as we make new wines each year and as our wine ages. Our 2002 Pinot Noir recently received its 1st Gold Medal from the Dallas Wine Competition. We have received numerous gold medals for our Pinot wines as well as Zinfandels and Cabernet Sauvignon.

D'Argenzio, "People of Silver"

We trace our roots to St. Angelo Cancelli, a mountain town outside of Napoli, Italy, where family legend has it that our ancestors were honored artisans who created ornate works of silver for the noble families of Italy's Campania region. The silver in our wine label pays tribute to this heritage.

We were reminded of the importance of remaining connected to generations past on a visit to the Old Country some years ago. The memories will remain with us always ... strolling through the vineyards with a glass of homemade vino and toasting a glorious sunset over the valleys that stretch towards Mt. Vesuvius and the Bay of Napoli.

The timeless values of Old World craftsmanship have been carried forward to this day by our Papa, Alfonzo A. D'Argenzio, a master craftsman for over half a century. He taught us well. This proud tradition of creating works of handcrafted beauty and lasting quality is inbred in us, in our very hearts and souls. It is an essential ingredient in the premium Italian-styled wines created by today's D'Argenzio family.

The D'Argenzio boys:
Ricci, Nicholas, Anthony and Ray - Photo taken in Sienna Italy

 

It was not until we moved to Sonoma County that we were prompted by a bambino to become serious about wine making. Driving through Dry Creek Valley one spring day in 1994, my young son asked me, "Papa, what are all these grapes for? I know you and Zios ("Uncles" in Italian) and Grandpa used to make wine at home. Why don't we?" That fall we crushed 200 pounds of Dry Creek Valley grapes and made a modest vintage of Old Vine Zinfandel. This past fall, we crushed 30,000 pounds of grapes from the world class Dry Creek Valley and Russian River Valley appellations. We now focus on the region's three primary red varietals: Zinfandel, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon. Our wine making philosophy is quite simple. While we take advantage of some modern technologies available to today's wine making, we do so cautiously. We much prefer the Old World methods, such as gently pressing our grapes in a hand-operated 100-year-old press, aging our wine between 12 and 22 months and using only the very finest French and American oak barrels. There is no compromising our cherished ideals of color, aroma, flavor and quality.

Richard A. D'Argenzio, Proprietor
Raymond Anthony D'Argenzio, Winemaker