Cafecito, anyone? How about a short break to stimulate your own outlook for living a great life?  We had a few musings to put down on our blog-paper. Grab a coffee, or a glass, or a cigar, and sit with us while we talk!

Just Another Winery, or Is There Something More?

Sometimes we wonder if we are really just working in the wine industry (even though we love being a part of the TEXAS Wine Industry, and no mistake!), or is there something more going on? Having just completed one of our more unique on-site winery experiences…, the Siboney Car Show, Wine Stroll, Fajita Feast and Live Music with Forlini & Cross! with so many enthusiastic guests, celebrating their own passions, show car tribute editions, and refurbished works of art (Photos to come soon!). If anyone has a passion as great as a wine lover, it is certainly a show-car family. So, we should embrace and accept the idea that we are, indeed, a growing part of the “Life is a pleasure” business. This event was a high energy day for our team, and our guests, and not without its challenges. But for everything we put in, it was certainly returned, tenfold, in pure joy. 

What brought us to this post? While scrubbing a burn-out skid mark from our entry logo (what a way to end a car show parade!), it also got us to thinking more broadly about what we do, how we do it, and why. And what the most loyal, happy guests and club members really tell us about our ideas, our pace, and our approach. It certainly would be simpler to just pour the wine and hope for sales to accrue. But we find ourselves wanting to do more. And not just for a bottom line. Because of real satisfaction we receive, and that we evidently are able to generate in good will, doing what we do at Siboney.  This must account for the some of the very positive and buoyant feedback coming in during and after the event.

But are we on the right track? Not everyone thinks so!

Life Is Over, Unless You Live it “Their Way”

Over the past few years, the pendulum has swung away from wine, perhaps away from other sectors too, with very powerful forces creating massive headwinds. From the WHO, to lobbyists, to Neo-prohibitionists, and even the MaryJane/Cannibis industry, we hear from people who always know better than you, about how you should live, and how your current habits just do not coincide with the direction they have in mind. A direction that always seems to be in opposition. We have puzzled over the lecturing tones, admonitions, and advocacy for boycotts… not stopping at mere moderation in drinking… but totally cutting out and against any form of “alcohol consumption”. Elimination intended to ash-heap the entirety of the cultural history and national identities tied into wine, wine culture, and wine-making. And with this, a huge amount of false advertising for alternatives. Because you are not a wine lover, a cultural advocate, a farmer-family supporter. Or a wine collector, an educator, a sommelier, or even an interesting person who wants to share bottles intended for sharing at table. Maybe even with a great meal at a social gathering place called a Restaurant. You know them well, they barely break even on food but make their income delighting you with great curated wine lists and collections covering many decades. These places would cease to exist under the rubric of Elimination. And that would be, frankly, horrifying. So in the final analysis, it seems you’re hopelessly incapable of balance, or lifestyle selection. You don’t seek wine experiences and interactions at interesting places featuring authentic, traditional methods or modern techniques. Nope — you are a drunk, an alcohol addict and a problem. All you want is cheap booze. So all you need to know, they tell us, is that there is “NO SAFE LEVEL.” So they are preparing to warn, label and ban.

We’ve seen this before. You can be forgiven if you don’t remember when eggs were nearly banned. Or using butter was overwhelmed by Big Margarine. Or a Fat-Free label was all you needed to convince someone they were doing it all wrong and to Switch NOW!

Coffee, Wine, and Other Pleasures of a Healthy Lifestyle

You may know that none other than Thanos himself understood that the World Craves Balance. But he was too much of a control freak and as an ultimate power as well as an “expert”, his judgment on how to restore balance had a literally fatal flaw. For you, but not for him of course. Not until the very end. Thank god for the Avengers.

So we are seeing some of that balance swinging back into view, with numerous research studies surfacing…. We just read another interesting long-term healthy-living study, this one regarding the virtues of COFFEE on midlife adults and the potential for positively influencing a healthier life into senior years (Link attached). We have long understood that coffee is a complex beverage, grown by farmers, tribes and the trade, in specific terroirs and zones, picked and roasted as a fruit/nut, then brewed at super high temperature for extraction purposes. It can be insipidly bad but it can also be so good you can’t believe it’s legal. The result is more than just a caffeine jolt, it’s a somewhat mysterious amalgam of nature and agriculture and culinary practice based on many generations of trial, error, acceptance and ultimately, daily pleasure. And across many cultures. The article makes the point that other caffeine drinks did not show up having the same positive impact on a healthy senior life, that were was more going on than could be explained by just caffeine. 

This is of a piece with more research published on a variety of topics… keys to a happy, healthy and reduced-stress lifestyle that includes wine, meat, butter, fruit, coffee, sunshine, music, dancing, active travel, games, sports, pets, family and yes, even ice cream and even even even premium full long leaf tobacco cigars (we-kid-you-not). Perhaps not all at once, certainly not all together, but ideally, all in balance, all in moderation, in rotation throughout the calendar, and sourced with care. This checks so many boxes for us, to be honest it is just how we like to live and enjoy the company around us!

So let’s call this the Cuban Lifestyle.

It’s not a diet, it’s not a strict list or regimen requiring pledges of fealty. And it’s not perfect. But what else is new. Perhaps more than anything, it is a mindset! Having met so many alert, happy, healthy people, many seniors, often who are accompanied at Siboney by their own adult children and grand kids… including many Cubanos over the years, late into life (and despite the circumstances of many who have lived the epic arc of history that is embedded in Cubans since 1959), we can see the point! And having grown up with it in my own family…. even in the face of tragedy, deprivation and external pressures, the positive outlook is contagious in all the best ways.  Music is the universal expression of the spirit of the people. And we would argue, food and drink go hand in hand with this expression.

If you must reduce, drop or boycott something, how about any of these: Vaping, hi-octane spirits, fake food, processed food, shortcut shakes, spooled-up concoctions of zero-alcohol “beverages,” screen-and-keyboard stimulation, political meme-addictions, perfectionism, and most of all – worry. Nothing is ever so useless as energy wasted on worrying. 

Now, we are not here to debate or convince anybody who already is living their best life by other means, of which there is ample support and expertise… so here we stand, with two principles in mind: First, you are obviously Free to Choose your own path. And second, if we dare to offer any advice at all, it would be simply, this: Indulge your passions – with moderation and balance.

We love when new guests do allow themselves to experience something like a cigarillo, or a cafecito, or a vineyard stroll, after the Siboney wine tasting experience. Even Thanos might have gone about things a different way, if only someone handed him a Cafecito.

Different, Yes. In Balance? Always the Goal.

Enough words? Yes! But now you know why some of the experiences we offer are in fact, a little different. They originate from a genuine pursuit of “The Pleasure of Life.” Lord knows there are more than enough problems stacked up all around. So, let us take a moment, and help you make a moment. This is why we have scavenger hunts for kids, pets welcome on the terrace, generational family club privileges, music events, culinary pairing experiences, wine and cigar options, and abundant laughter, joy and hospitality. Domino tournaments, whole pig roasts. Car shows with fire-grilled whole planks of fajitas, to recapture methods and memories from other eras and places we’ve been. Amazing music events, “dinner and a show” experiences. Shared space in the vineyard oaks, on the terrace, expansive views. Time to yourselves at Twilight. The occasional movie in the Barrel Cellar (June 12 actually is the next one!).

All of this… giving you the chance to strive for, and just maybe reach that Balance. At times these elements may be in conflict with one another. So we rely on judgment and common sense, and our amazing team’s deference to hospitality and guest satisfaction, to guide us. Otherwise, be assured: We too, are living our best lives possible, and love when you join us.

And Finally… the other reason for this post: Happy birthday to my late father — the Old Cuban was born in Havana, on June 2, 1928. He would have loved this car show, and always lived like a Cuban. CAFECITO! OKAY?!? Saludos, MRL