Left to Right: Mikael Tigrett, Steve Matthiasson, Jaime Araujo Bézian, Greg Araujo, Daphne Araujo, Bart Araujo, Nigel Kinsman, Françoise Peschon, Lisa Tuttle (not pictured)

Accendo Team

People are fundamental to what we are creating

At Accendo, we are privileged and grateful to be working with many of the same small team members that helped us build Araujo Estate. The collective knowledge and experience of our collaborators Nigel Kinsman and Françoise Peschon, winemakers; and Michel Rolland, consulting enologist - are integral to our wine's success.

The talent and commitment of each and every one of these people will ensure excellence in our endeavors.

And it is energizing to collaborate together as a family, every member bringing experience and perspective to the group with vitality and passion.

Partner

Jaime Araujo

As a partner in Accendo Cellars, Jaime brings a wealth of experience in marketing fine wine worldwide. Before joining the family business, she founded Terravina, an international marketing, communications and strategic solutions company for the wine industry based in Paris. She also spent three years working in marketing for the wine and spirits division of LVMH.

Partner

Greg Araujo

Greg’s path was unconventional. He is perhaps the one who was the most clearly predestined for the role, but the one who also resisted the longest. The family’s arrival in Napa ignited Greg’s interest in food and gastronomy, and in 1995, fresh out of college, he became the first American to study at the prestigious Luis Irizar cooking school in San Sebastian, Spain.

Managing Director

Mikael Tigrett

Mikael has been with Accendo Cellars since 2017, managing relationships and communications with clients and hospitality professionals. He has directed Accendo Cellars’ hospitality program at Wheeler Farms and played an integral role in the development of private client tastings and events.

Nigel Kinsman

Michel Rolland

Quincy Selbach

Lisa Tuttle

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Winemaker

Françoise Peschon

Françoise has worked alongside Daphne and Bart Araujo since 1993 when they were proprietors of the Eisele Vineyard. Today at Accendo Cellars, she oversees the winemaking for the Sauvignon Blanc and consults with Nigel Kinsman on the Cabernet.

In her thirty-year career, she’s worked at some of the best—including Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Araujo Estate Wines, Viader Vineyards and Vine Hill Ranch—quietly crafting some of Napa Valley’s most acclaimed Cabernet Sauvignons of the last three decades. She is quick to credit her mentors, wine industry luminaries Michel Rolland, Warren Winiarski and Tony Soter, whose sensitivity, intellect and sense of aesthetics have clearly inspired her.

Françoise earned a degree in Enology from the University of California, Davis, and a certificate from the DUAD program at the University of Bordeaux. After graduation from Davis, Françoise spent a year in Bordeaux working at Chateau Haut Brion. It was there that she discovered a life-long passion for working with Bordeaux varieties at an estate property; these two concepts have resonated with Françoise for more than 30 years. In 2019, she was named The San Francisco Chronicle’s “Winemaker of the Year”.

In addition to her role with Accendo, she continues to make the wines at Vine Hill Ranch, and serves as consulting winemaker for Cornell Vineyards. She is also invested in Drinkward Peschon, a small brand she shares with her good friend and neighbor, Lisa Drinkward, since 2000.

Winemaker

Françoise Peschon

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Winemaker

Nigel Kinsman

Nigel Kinsman began working with the Araujo family in 2010 when he joined the team as winemaker at Araujo Estate Wines. A decade later, he now makes the family’s Cabernet Sauvignon for Accendo Cellars.

The Araujos were originally keen to bring Nigel on board because of his experience working with biodynamic and organic vineyards, as well as his proven track record producing highly regarded wines from some of the finest estates in California, Italy and Australia.

He spent four years as winemaker for Krupp Brothers in Napa Valley where he oversaw the production of wines for Krupp Brothers, Black Bart and Veraison. Prior to that he was winemaker at Australian Wine Holdings Ltd. in the Margaret River, and spent two years in Italy working with consulting winemaker Michel Rolland at Tolaini SRL, Castelnuova Berardenga. Nigel also worked at Cullen Wines, a certified Biodynamic® and organic vineyard and winery in Margaret River, as well as Nepenthe Wines and Mount Langi Ghiran. He received his Oenology degree from the University of Adelaide in addition to a Bachelor of Music degree. He was named San Francisco Luxe Council “2018 Rising Stars Winemaker of the Year”.

Together with his wife Shae, Nigel produces Kinsman Eades wines.

Winemaker

Nigel Kinsman

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Oenologist

Michel Rolland

Bordeaux-based oenologist Michel Rolland has consulted with the Araujo family for two decades. His brilliant talent for blending wine as well as his deep understanding of winegrowing and winemaking have contributed to the acclaim of Araujo Estate Wines and now Accendo Cellars. Together with two generations of the Araujo family and their winemakers Nigel Kinsman and Françoise Peschon, Michel participates in planning and blending sessions three times per year for the Accendo Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc.

Oenologist

Michel Rolland

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Director of Operations

Quincy Selbach

Quincy’s responsibilities include strategic management of sales operations for DTC, 3-Tier and in-house channels, compliance, financial controls, supply chain ordering and fulfillment, as well as importing.

She joined Accendo Cellars with nearly 30 years of experience in the wine industry working with reputable brands including Robert Mondavi Winery, Wilson Daniels, LTD and most recently Quintessential Wines.

Director of Operations

Quincy Selbach

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National Sales Director

Lisa Tuttle

As National Sales Director, Tuttle is responsible for overseeing Accendo Cellars’ wholesale domestic and international distribution partners and relationships. Tuttle joins Accendo Cellars with more than 30 years of experience as a top performer in fine wine sales and marketing.

Most recently, Tuttle served as the Director of Wines for Stoli Group USA, focusing on sales, education, branding, marketing and winery relations for the organization’s fine wine portfolio. Her career in wine began in restaurants, but she soon transitioned to the sales team with longtime Bay Area importer and wholesaler, Martine’s Wines. Her career journey next led to three Northern California family-owned wine businesses: a sales management role for Sebastiani Vineyards; regional sales roles for Cline Cellars and Jacuzzi Family Vineyards; as well as sales roles for the luxury wine divisions of Allied Domecq Wines, USA and Constellation Brands before joining Stoli Group USA in 2014. In addition to her work experience, Tuttle has received the WSET Diploma Level 4 and the WSET Educator Certificate. During her tenure at Stoli Group USA she was also a WSET Approved Program Provider.

National Sales Director

Lisa Tuttle

“The vineyard sources changed and the winery changed, but the team, the ethos and the mindset behind how we make the wines and what we want the finished product to look like remains the same.”

– Greg Araujo

The Araujo family and Accendo Cellars winemaking and oenology team during one of three annual blending sessions.

Françoise Peschon blending Cabernet Sauvignon during a blending session.

Françoise Peschon and Nigel Kinsman conversing in the barrel room at Wheeler Farms Winery, where Accendo Cellars’ wines are made and tasted.

Daphne, Michel and Francoise at one of three annual blending sessions with the Accendo team.

Nigel Kinsman and Greg Araujo inspect the fruit recently harvested.

Steve Matthiasson, Nigel Kinsman and Françoise Peschon work closely with one another throughout the growing season.

The new Accendo team

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