BigHammerWines.com

Accendo Cellars is the second act of one of Napa Valley's most important wine families. Bart and Daphne Araujo built the Eisele Vineyard into one of Napa's most coveted Cabernets—a cult wine that now sells for over $500 a bottle and is owned today by François Pinault, the same billionaire behind Château Latour. After selling Eisele in 2013, the Araujos quietly started over. Accendo is what they're pouring their lives into now, a smaller, more deliberate project drawing on three decades of Napa mastery.

Winemaker Françoise Peschon has been with the Araujos since 1993. She earned her stripes at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars and Araujo Estate, and the Sauvignon Blanc is her signature white. The 2023 is a Graves-inspired blend—75% Sauvignon Blanc, 19% Semillon, and 6% Sauvignon Musque—sourced from two Oakville vineyards and Juliana Vineyard in Pope Valley, all farmed organically and biodynamically. Grapes are whole-cluster pressed and barrel-fermented (roughly 20% new oak), with weekly bâtonnage on the lees for texture.

What you get is a Napa Sauvignon Blanc that actually drinks like Bordeaux. There's richness here—silky, layered, generous—but it's held in place by a spine of mineral acidity that keeps everything tight and alive. This is what Napa Sauvignon Blanc looks like when a world-class Cabernet team turns its attention to white wine, and at 1,209 cases produced, most wine drinkers will never know it exists.