Siblings Greg and Jaime Araujo have sold their family’s Accendo brand to a group formed by vintner Jack Bittner and the Bettinelli family. The sale includes the brand and current inventory, but no vineyards. The purchase price was not disclosed.
“Accendo has always been about the growers,” said Jaime Araujo, who will now focus on her Trois Noix brand and is also currently chairing the Napa Valley Vintners board. “For me it’s a logical progression for the brand to put it in the hands of the best growers in the valley. We’re all friends and Greg and I want to see them thrive with this.”
Accendo was created after Greg and Jaime’s parents, Bart and Daphne Araujo, sold the Araujo brand and Eisele vineyard in 2013. Shifting his focus from a single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon grown in Calistoga, Araujo envisioned Accendo as an homage to the classic, age-worthy, blended Cabernets of the 1970s, but with an Oakville signature.
With winemaker Nigel Kinsman overseeing production, Accendo’s flagship Cabernet Sauvignon set an impressive track record, earning seven classic ratings of 95 points or better in the nine vintages from its debut 2014 through the 2022. The 2023 and 2024 vintages of the wine have not yet been released. In 2024, Bart sold the Accendo brand to Greg and Jaime as part of the Wheeler Farms sale.
Accendo currently produces approximately 900 cases each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc annually. There are no plans to increase that production initially. Kinsman will stay on as winemaker, with production to continue in the Wheeler Farms facility now owned by Suzanne Deal Booth.
“First rule, do no harm,” Bittner told Wine Spectator. “We want to get to know the Accendo customer and respect the brand. This is something that came about in part because there are long relationships between the Araujos, Bettinellis and myself.”
Bittner, 55, is a former partner in Ovid and Silver Oak; he divested from those wineries two years ago. He is currently managing partner of the 20-acre Ecotone vineyard, which sits above St. Helena and just below the Howell Mountain AVA. Formerly known as Thorevilos, it had been farmed by David Abreu under a long-term lease. When that ended in 2019, Bittner turned the farming over to the Bettinelli family.
The family currently owns 350 acres of vines in Napa Valley and farms approximately 600 additional acres, making them the largest farming operation in the valley. The family-owned business is currently managed by fifth-generation Giancarlo Bettinelli, 44, and his brother-in-law, Paul Goldberg, 42.
With the Bettinelli family involved in the purchase, there is notable continuity undergirding the sale. “We delivered fruit from Sleeping Lady [Vineyard] to Accendo starting in 2014,” says Bettinelli. “So it seemed like a good fit to be the stewards for the brand going forward.”
[article-img-container][src=2025-06/ns_accendo-soil-pit-060225_540.jpg] [caption= The new Accendo owners explore one of the soil pits they are using to learn about the Mitchell Vineyard.] [credit= (Rob Watermeyer) ] [alt= Giancarlo Bettinelli, Jack Bittner and Paul Goldberg stand in a soil pit in Napa’s Mitchell Vineyard.][end: article-img-container]
In addition to Sleeping Lady and Ecotone, the Bettinellis have been farming the majority of fruit sources for Accendo over the years, including their own Upper Range vineyard, a 120-acre site that straddles the Rutherford and Napa Valley AVAs. Over the years, Accendo has sourced fruit from a shifting cast of some of Napa Valley’s top vineyards for its blend, including Vine Hill Ranch, Oakville Ranch and M-Bar Ranch. Some, such as Vine Hill Ranch, located in Oakville and owned by Bruce and Heather Phillips, as well as M-Bar, will not be continuing. The new Accendo ownership plans to replace those fruit sources with some of their own.
“We have some pieces, such as the Mast vineyard in Yountville, that we think make sense. And any new fruit that comes in won’t be more than the fruit we’re losing, so the production level will be maintained,” says Bettinelli. “Then we have some other pieces from newer sites that we can experiment with and get to know first.”
One of those new sites is the Mitchell vineyard, located in Yountville, which is going to be used as the new home for an Accendo estate. The vineyard is located on the former Hoffman Ranch. A rare benchland site on the western edge of the Yountville AVA, it’s where Giancarlo Bettinelli grew up. Now under a long-term lease started in 2021, the Bettinellis have planted 15 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, with the 2025 to be the first harvest off the estate.
“There aren’t a lot of spots in Napa where there’s unrealized potential,” says Bettinelli. “Nigel will get to play with the fruit, keeping all the blocks separate because of the varying soil types on the property, and he’ll let us know what works from there. We’re very excited.”
Stay on top of important wine stories with Wine Spectator’s free Breaking News Alerts.
