(Decanter) - Bart and Daphne Araujo have started again after selling their namesake California wine estate to one of France's richest men, Francois Pinault, who also owns Château Latour in Bordeaux. Jane Anson finds out about the new Araujo wine venture - and predicts good things to come.

Both properties are a breath from the Silverado Trail, that stunning paradise of a road that runs parallel to Highway 29 in Napa Valley.

The original Araujo Estate lies just outside the Calistoga city limits to the upper end of the Valley. Arriving a little late, I drive right past the subtle entrance that bears the legend Eisele Vineyard and within minutes end up in a dead-end halfway up a mountain. That’s how it is here; from manicured to nowhere within the blink of an eye. I back up and head into one of the most perfectly-proportioned wineries that I have ever visited; verdant, shaded, redwood barns, chickens, bee hives, apricot trees, stillness. It’s no surprise to learn that former owner Daphne Araujo was a landscape gardener before turning to winemaking.

The new ‘Araujo 2.0’ as they call it was bought by Bart and Daphne within months of selling their former home to François Pinault’s Artemis Group in 2013. The search for new fruit to continue making wine began within hours of signing the sale papers. I drive down to them straight from Calistoga, heading around 15 minutes further south towards Rutherford and Oakville.

Accendo Cellars

Newly-baptised Accendo Cellars – they have left their family name with their former home under the terms of the sales contract ‘with the possibility of reclaiming it if Artemis decide to use just Eisele’ – is the first property you come to after turning off the Silverado Trail onto one of those cross roads that winds you back to the busier side of the Valley. It may be the most eagerly awaited new release in Napa right now.

Details of the project have been kept a closely guarded secret, but the first wine – a 2014 Sauvignon Blanc, one of the grapes that they were most celebrated for at Eisele Vineyard – will hit the market next month.

A 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon follows later this year. And judging by my tasting of both, they are going to prove a formidable second act for the couple.