Wine and Friendship for the Ages: Accendo Cellars

For lovers of Napa Cabernet, Eisele Vineyards rings a particularly hallowed note. From this benchland area in northern Napa came one of the first-ever single-vineyard-designated Cabs in California, made by Ridge’s Paul Draper in 1971. It’s an important part of the history of California wine. In 1990, it was purchased by Bart and Daphne Araujo, who continued the tradition of exceptional Cabernet, while actualizing the potential of its Syrah as well. With their longtime winemaker Françoise Peschon (winner of the Chronicle’s 2019 Winemaker of the Year) and consultant Michel Rolland, the Araujos, too, have become an important part of the history of California wine.

In 2013, the Eisele Vineyard was purchased by the Pinault Family of Bordeaux’s Château Latour, but the Araujos weren’t quite ready to retire. So they set out on a new venture, and thus was born Accendo Cellars. The Accendo project is committed to the same ethos of excellence the Araujo family is known for, but this time the focus is on the art of blending. After working with a single site for decades, they are now blending fruit from several of the best vineyards throughout the Valley, aiming to capture a sense of old-school Napa wine from its heyday in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

Accendo Cellars is a family affair. From left to right: Jaime, Daphne, Bart, and Greg.

But Bart and K&L actually way go back, back to before there even was a K&L—he happens to be a longtime friend of one of our owners and cofounders, Clyde Beffa. The two played baseball in high school together: Clyde was the sophomore centerfielder to Bart’s senior pitcher, and they like to tease each other about who was the star of the team. But more than baseball, their friendship was founded on wine: after a few decades away from the baseball diamond, they each started second careers in the wine world, and the connection they forged has extended into their kids’ generation as well. They recently got together to go over old times and taste new wines, and they each told me their own versions of their epic friendship:

BART: “My math is fuzzy. I met Clyde in 1961, playing baseball on the Serra High School team, in San Mateo. I was a senior, Clyde was a sophomore. It was a great team—some of the guys even went on to play professional baseball. My senior year, all the stars had left, and this kid from Half Moon Bay named Beffa was put out in center field. I was thinking “How will this work out?”

I was a pitcher with a great average. My infielders were so good. Clyde’s version is that he bailed me out. He was thin and really fast. That’s why we became friends, even though he was a sophomore. We have maintained a friendship. I moved to SoCal, but when I came back it was like I’d never left.

CLYDE: Serra High School was Tom Brady’s School. Lynn Swann. Barry Bonds. It had its share of great athletes, and now my grandson is there, playing on the golf team. 

When Bart was in his senior year, he was a pitcher, and he was good. That year, they had a large number of openings, and there was a spot for me, as a sophomore, to play center field. It was a very good team. We won the championship but lost in the final to East Bay. Bart jokes that I’m the center fielder who sometimes let him down.

Bart went to USC. Played baseball the first two years and then became a cheerleader because of the allocation for clothes. Bart has always been well dressed.

BART: I majored in baseball at USC until I injured my arm. 

BART: I got interested in wine as a consumer in Santa Barbara. When I sold my construction business, my wife and I talked about where we wanted to live. We’ve gotten so used to not living in an urban center, but having access to a big city while living in a peaceful, pretty surrounding. That translated to wine country. There’s only one problem with Santa Barbara. It’s not Northern California. I’m a Northern California boy at heart.

I went to the Napa Valley Wine Auction in 1989. I met great people. Met Jean Phillips of Screaming Eagle. She knew the best places. She brought the Eisele Vineyard to us. We were going to have a small farm but once we had the stewardship of Eisele, it became the new business. We farmed it, built a winery, and made wine with Tony Soter, whom we’d met in the 1980s when he was a winemaker at Spottswoode. In 1993 we brought in Françoise Peschon. She worked part-time because she was pregnant. She became the full-time winemaker in 1996, and it’s been an incredible collaboration with her. She brought in Nigel Kinsman. Our first release was in 1991. 

CLYDE: At that point, he was in the wine biz and K&L sold his wine, so we got back in touch. (Ed note: You can read the story of Clyde’s journey into the wine biz here.) But we’d been in touch before that. I’d always been involved in Serra High, and when Trey was going there, I was the Campaign Director for renovations. We approached Bart, and he became a donor. We renovated the baseball field. He’s always been a big supporter of Serra High School. But we got more involved once he was in the wine business.

BART: Clyde and Trey came to visit in 1992. Clyde has the next generation in his business and so do I. The second generation—Trey and Kerri, Jaime and Greg—are all friends.

CLYDE: One of his kids even worked at K&L for awhile.

ACCENDO CELLARS

BART: Now, Instead of one incredible site, I use a lot of great vineyards, many owned by friends of mine. They have to farm it to our standards. We’ve done single-vineyard wines for 25 years. We’re finding more freedom with blending. We knew every inch of Eisele. Now we are learning all over again with new sites. It’s a great challenge. We’re learning from each of our vineyards. Every year it’s more and more fun. Challenge is the most positive way to learn. Critic Antonio Galloni tastes all the sites before I do the blending. He always says to me, “Why are you blending? These are all so great as a single-vineyard bottling.” I say, “Think how good they’ll be together!”

The most soulful part of the business is being in the vineyard. I love watching budbreak, seeing the day-to-day changes in the vineyard. Harvest and bringing fruit in is very exciting. I like the blending aspect, too: it’s not just your physical palate, it’s almost alchemy. You think you know each component but then it all comes together. Our palates are attuned to Bordeaux. We really like the nuance and balance in classically styled wines. My vision was to go back to some of the great Napa wines of the 50s to 70s that I’ve tasted and are still unbelievable.

CLYDE: We sell the Accendo Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The wines are really very good. One of the wines we tasted when I visited him at his winery is not available yet: the 2017 Cab. 2017 was the year of the big fires. But Bart finished picking the day before the fires. And his new facility is so good that no smoke got near these wines. It’s just a testament to his winemaking: thoughtful, Bordeauxish, elegant. 

His great Araujo Eisele wines are legendary. They were all made in the Calistoga region of the Napa Valley—a soft spot in my heart because I have a house in Calistoga. He has continued his fine wine production—he just moved south a bit in the Valley. Recently, he has been producing fabulous wines under the Accendo label. Now the winery is located on Zinfandel Lane (you should visit it) and the fruit comes mainly from the Oakville region of the Valley. His 2016 is stunning: toasty oak and cassis aromas follow to the palate. Very elegant and refined with no hard edges, plus round tannins and a lingering finish. Very Bordeaux like. Bravo!

Everyone knows I love Sauvignon Blanc from most any country. Bart’s 2018 is one of the best I have tasted this year. Perfectly balanced wine and not clumsy like so many California SBs are. Fine acidity and tons of ripe citrus like flavors. Some richness on the palate with a long, lingering, refreshing finish. You just want to drink the whole bottle—especially on a warm summer evening. Should be perfect with some shellfish or even a barbecued chicken—heck its great alone by the pool also. A must try.

These days, Bart and Clyde socialize at meetings of their very serious wine club in San Francisco, and their families all know each other. Bart agrees there’s something special about spending time socially with someone he’s known since he was a teenager, and says, “I consider Clyde a great friend.” They definitely like to tease each other about their baseball skills but the connection they’ve built—based on baseball, wine, and family—is strong and inspiring. Both have deep roots in California wine, and have certainly made their marks. And it all goes back to the good ol’ days at Serra High...

- Kate Soto