Bart and Daphne Araujo

Their story could easily be told through wine. Over more than three decades, Bart and Daphne Araujo have built wineries and launched celebrated brands, while supporting many of Napa Valley’s nonprofit organizations. But ask what matters most about the valley’s future, and they rarely talk about vintages. They talk about stewardship.

Standing on their property in Oakville, surrounded by vineyards and framed by oak-covered hills, they see more than one of the world’s great wine regions. They see a place whose beauty, economy and identity are inseparable from the landscape that has become increasingly vulnerable to wildfire.

Over time, that philosophy has expanded far beyond their own vineyards.

Today, it guides their commitment to Napa Firewise and the Valley Stewards Initiative, where they have become some of the organization’s most dedicated supporters. Their generosity extends beyond annual giving. Napa Firewise is also included in their estate plans, reflecting a belief that protecting Napa Valley requires thinking not just in years, but in generations.

For the Araujos, stewardship has always meant investing in the community that has given them so much. Since settling in Napa in 1992, the couple has devoted countless hours to causes that strengthen the valley beyond its vineyards. Healthcare, education and land conservation have long been their philanthropic priorities. Daphne has served for more than two decades on the St Helena Hospital Foundation board. Together they have supported organizations such as the Land Trust of Napa County, the Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Napa, St Helena, and Calistoga, the UpValley Family Center, and Clinic Olé.

Then came wildfire. The devastating fires of 2017 shook the valley. Three years later, the Glass Fire transformed concern into urgency.

“The fires did more than threaten homes. They threatened something harder to replace: the very landscape that defines Napa Valley.

Daphne remembers watching flames descend toward neighborhoods much as she had years earlier while living in Santa Barbara.

“There’s nothing like living through a wildfire and feeling its power,” she says. “You can see the fire come over the hill and descend into the valley, and you wonder, Will your home still be there? There’s no way to know.”

Friends lost homes. Familiar hiking trails above Calistoga were transformed into blackened hillsides that, years later, still bear the scars.

Rather than accept wildfire as inevitable, the Araujos chose to invest in solutions.

They became involved with Napa Firewise in 2021, impressed not only by the organization’s vision but by its discipline.

“Firewise understands that it’s not just about establishing the plan,” Bart says. “They’ve had a tremendous campaign of public awareness, and they’ve stayed with it.”

That confidence deepened when Bart and Daphne served as chairs of Auction Napa Valley in 2022.

They championed directing the event’s charitable proceeds toward wildfire resilience and reforestation. It was the first time the Napa Valley Vintners focused the annual fundraiser on wildfire mitigation. The resulting investment helped launch major resilience projects across the county, including strategic fuel reduction and community preparedness efforts.

For Bart, what stood out was the Firewise organization’s clarity.

“It wasn’t, ‘Give us your money and we’ll figure out what to do,’” he says. “It was, ‘Here’s exactly what we want to accomplish.’ There aren’t a lot of nonprofits that are that precise.”

Daphne has found inspiration in the visible progress taking shape throughout the valley.

“Driving into the hillsides where some of our friends live, I can see the work that’s been done along the roads to make them more fire-hardened,” she says. “People have taken the lessons of what fire can do to heart and have been proactive.”

The couple believes wildfire resilience reaches far beyond those who live in fire-prone areas. Even residents in the cities of Napa or American Canyon, Bart argues, have a stake in preventing catastrophic fires. Smoke affects children’s health. Schools struggle when teachers cannot reach classrooms. Tourism slows. Restaurants, hotels and local businesses all feel the economic consequences.

“There is no “solution” to wildfires,” Bart says. “We can’t eliminate them, but we can minimize the impacts. And we need to do it collectively.”

Looking ahead, the Araujos hope Napa Firewise succeeds not simply by completing projects, but by changing attitudes.

“Success would be Napa Firewise communicating effectively with the entire community to the point that everyone understands they have an individual responsibility,” Bart says.

That message resonates because it reflects how the Araujos see Napa Valley itself—not as something guaranteed, but something entrusted to each generation.

Whenever they return home from traveling, Bart says the feeling is always the same.

“We look around and say, What an amazing and unique place this is. It’s not automatic to keep it this beautiful.”

Protecting Napa Valley, they believe, is not simply about preventing the next wildfire. It’s about ensuring that future generations inherit a place that is stronger, healthier and even more resilient than the one they were fortunate to call home.