Amphibole- and clinopyroxene-bearing monzodiorites were emplaced at 340 Ma (CA-ID-TIMS zircon age), suggesting the formation of hydrous and dry magmas closely related in space and time in the NE Bohemian Massif. Hafnium and oxygen isotopes of zircon in less evolved rocks (<55 wt% SiO2) are similar between Amp and Cpx monzodiorites (εHf = −3.3 ± 0.5 and − 3.5 ± 0.8; δ18O = 6.4 ± 1.0 and 6.8 ± 0.7, respectively), consistent with a common source—a contaminated mafic magma derived from an enriched mantle. At the same time, the conditions of crystallization are distinct and zircon appears to be an excellent tool for distinguishing between hydrous and anhydrous crystallization conditions, a process that may be more ambiguously recorded by whole rock and major mineral chemistry. In particular, elements fractionated by either amphibole or plagioclase crystallization, such as Hf, Dy, and Eu, differ in zircon from amphibole- and clinopyroxene-bearing rocks, and Zr/Hf, Yb/Dy, and Eu/Dy are therefore useful indices of crystallization conditions. We show that the composition of zircon from hydrous dioritic magmas is not comparable with that of typical zircon from dioritic-granitic suites worldwide, suggesting a specific process involved in their formation. Here, we propose that fluid-present remelting of a mafic underplate is necessary to explain the rock textures as well as the composition of the whole rock, zircon, and other minerals of amphibole-bearing monzodiorites and that a similar process may control the formation of amphibole-rich dioritic rocks worldwide, including appinitic suites. Overall, we show that dioritic rocks represent snapshots of differentiation processes that occur in the early stages of magma evolution before the magma is homogenized into large-scale batholiths.