2019 Accendo Cellars - Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley (750ml)

Accendo Cellars was founded in 2013 by Bart and Daphne Araujo, following the sale of their celebrated Araujo Estate and its Eisele Vineyard. The couple built Wheeler Farms in Yountville as their new production home, and brought back much of the team behind their earlier success, including winemaker Françoise Peschon and consulting enologist Michel Rolland. Accendo takes its inspiration from Napa's mid-twentieth-century winemaking era, when blending fruit from multiple vineyards across the valley was standard practice, aiming for wines of restraint and elegance rather than sheer power.

This 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon draws on six different Napa Valley vineyard sites, including Vine Hill Ranch, Sleeping Lady in Rutherford, Eco Tone, and a Diamond Mountain parcel once known as Reverie. The blend is primarily Cabernet Sauvignon with small additions of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, aged 21 months in a mix of new and used French oak. Sourcing across such varied sites lets the winemaking team build complexity and balance rather than relying on any single vineyard's character.

The wine opens with dark cassis and blackberry fruit, layered with violets, black tea, and wild herbs. On the palate it's full-bodied and velvety, with rustic, elongated tannins and notes of leather, tobacco, and menthol carrying through a long, savory finish. Pair it with grilled venison, braised short ribs, or a rich aged gouda.