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Only The Beginning! New Vines Lead to Estate Wines.

The Siboney Cellars Terrace Vineyard Planting and Spring Wine Release event is in the books! Thank you to all our members, guests, volunteers and partners. You have given us every chance to create great #TxWine and we can’t wait to share the fruits of this endeavor.

So many smiling faces in this video! We could not be more delighted with the turnout and the great energy from our members, guests, volunteers and partners on April 10-11. Thank you all for visiting us at the new home for Siboney Cellars, and for putting roots down with us in the Terrace Vineyard Block! For you vineyard lovers, check out the site details and additional photos below.

Short of having a baby, planting a vineyard is the most optimistic thing you can do in life.

All the photos you see in this video are available for you to have, with our compliments! To download, please visit this link. When you post your photo, please do tag us on our Facebook and Instagram feeds and let us know you’re sharing #Siboney!

Member Photos: https://miguellecuona.zenfolio.com/siboney-april2021

The estate wines coming from this vineyard are earmarked for the Wine Club. To join, visit www.SiboneyCellars.com and explore the Clubs page.

The next Member event is scheduled for Memorial Weekend May 30-31. Stay tuned for more details. And again, thank you for giving us the best possible start for 2021.

Siboney Cellars Terrace Vineyard

  • AVA Classification: Texas Hill Country
  • Region: Pedernales Watershed, 4 miles W of Johnson City
  • Topography: Sloped Limestone Terrace, live oaks, native grasses, wildflowers, and very much cleared cedar; no prior cultivation
  • Elevation: 1,450′ (443.2M), 35′ elevation change
  • GPS: 30.262326, -98.462126 (30°15’44,4″N 98°27’43.7W)
  • Soil: Well-drained Doss Silty Clay, Brackett Association, and sandstone aggregate to 24″; atop limestone foundation. Significant fossilized seabed treasures across the site.
  • Acreage under vine: 3.68ac
  • Varietals
    • Merlot 181 ENTAV-INRA on SO4 — East block to Live Oak Mott
      • French Clone, originated from Bordeaux, certified 1973
      • Nursery: Wonderful, Kern County, California
    • Merlot FPS 24.1 on SO4 — Live Oak Mott and West Block
      • Italian Clone, VCR 101, certified 2002
      • Nursery: Novavine, Sonoma County, California
    • Total Planted: 5009 bench graft dormant vines
    • Vines survived wildfire, pandemic, and ice storms to reach Siboney
  • Spacing: 8×4, Bodark (Osage Orange) end posts
  • Orientation: South-North, with prevailing summer winds
  • Irrigation: Drip – rainwater capture and site well (depth 400′)
  • Soil and Site Analysis: Fritz Westover
  • Vineyard consultant: Bill Blackmon
  • Trellis Installation: Donny Jackson
  • Vine Planting: Luis Cortes and his team, by hand
  • Planting Date: April 5-11, 2021
  • This must be how Thor feels holding Mjolnir!
  • A view from the North, upslope, to the central Live Oak Mott
  • Bodark end posts, 9′ tall, sunk 3.5′ into concrete. We just love this functional look
  • Merlot Clones in bundles of 25, packed in sawdust. 5 days from dormancy to planting.
  • Irrigation system has many heroes including Chad from Aquadocs, key in getting the wells tied in for planting.
  • Luis Cortes, longtime friend and Texas Hill Country Vineyard Team: Javier, Francisco, Sergio
  • Just You Wait…
  • Verbena blooming in the vineyard and across the property
  • Miguel with Bill Blackmon, legendary Texas Vineyard Grower
  • A South view from the Alley, downslope, to the “ground-breaking oaks”, with our trusty JD4520 at ease
  • We can’t wait to share the bounty of this #txwine Merlot vineyard with you
  • Bill and Tate conferring about irrigation. OR waiting for the bus

With Gratitude…

Nearly 150 members and guests put roots down in our vineyard with us over the weekend of April 10 and 11! That just stuns us. We will never forget it, and we are every bit as excited as you to see it come to harvest in the future. Thank you!

We are blessed by our industry friends and project partners, all who share a love for the hill country and for Texas Wine: Legendary Texas Vineyard Grower Bill Blackmon who we hope never regrets asking to develop our vineyards at Siboney; (and thank you Tate, Andy and Evan!); Soil and Site Analyst Fritz Westover, whose joyous reaction to walking the site for the first time reinforced our own hopes and dreams; the vine-planting team led by my friend Luis Cortes, and his camaradas Javier, Sergio and Francisco. Thank you to Wonderful nursery for supplying the ENTAV Merlot clones. Holding that bundle in my hand must have been like Thor holding Mjolnir! And a very special shout-out to Sam Caselli of Novavine for his initial encouragement, timely and astute assistance and amazing service every step of the way. We also are indebted to Donny Jackson and his installation team; our Architect Kim Thompson of Reliance, and especially to Chad Meyers of Aquadocs and Blaine Langford of JK Bernhard, who pushed the limit on tying our wells together in time to commit the planting dates.

We also thank the expert volunteers who supported us to bring the event to such a success. Thank you Daniel Kelada, Kappy Simpson, Callisto Griffith, and Kourtney Collins. Thank you Chris and Elisa Hensz. Thank you to the Busch Family and Fire Oak Vineyards. Thank you Dee Dahlstrom. Thanks to our caterers, Mike’s Q on Saturday and Vivere on Sunday. We also appreciate the great music from Nathan of Spicy Loops, and the beloved Hill Country duo, Greg and Lisa Trace of Gold. And to Jason Cook, the Mayor of Hye, for loaning us those great tables and chairs from the Hye Hall!

And finally, this must be said: Our partnership with Bill and Mary Anne Waldrip has made every bit of this possible, and in ways we could never dare to hope. No project has extracted more commitment, trust and perseverance than this. We do this for our Members. We do this for Texas. We do this for Love. And we will work hard to make this site a point of pride for all of #TxWine. And it’s only the beginning. MRL

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Winter into Spring – Awakenings

Live oaks and limestone, and a dappled sunlit forest floor of agarita and blue grama – all coming together in native landscape that arranges itself.

As the Hill Country embraces an absolutely gorgeous debut of Spring this weekend, we took advantage of precious time and sunny days to work on an area of the Site that will soon be in play with our first customer event, coming up quickly on April 10-11 (as we write this, Tickets are available on the website at www.SiboneyCellars.com/Events).

After you drive through the front gate of our new site, you will presently see a stand of very large heritage live oaks – some as old as the Republic of Texas. Just a limestone’s throw from the Terrace Vineyard… this grove is perfect for greeting guests, organizing tastings, or hosting live music. While the trees did not completely escape the ravages of the Ice Storm of a month ago, damage to major branches appears to be contained. If you’ve noticed, many live oaks seem to be molting very aggressively this year. It’s as though the evergreen leaves gave their last ounce of energy to save the tree. The replacement buds are just emerging.

So what we have is something this grove hasn’t seen in an age — dappled sunlight to the forest floor. There are many years’ worth of fallen leaves in this grove, layer on layer. We spent hours removing and clearing around a few trees to see what was underneath, and we have uncovered beautiful Agarita and Blue Grama native grasses, ready to spring to life. So encouraged by this beautiful display of greenery on rich soil, we pushed forward to clear more. We might have a week or two of this dappled sunlight filtering through these oaks, and if we get a good rain, we just might regenerate even more beautiful native landscape.

Fossilized Bivalve unearthed from the limestone terrace.

Then we had the idea to define these areas with quarried limestone from the winery excavation. With literally thousands of bright limestone rocks to choose from, we pulled them by hand from piles. Transported then laid them down, creating three rings around several sets of trees. This will now define a walking path through the grove, as well as an area for guests to relax in the shade of true Texas Heritage Oaks. And to cap it off, we uncovered a beautiful fossil in one of the excavation areas, a bi-valve from 60 million years ago. Also known as a Texas Heart or a Deer Heart, it fits perfectly in the palms of both hands.

The significance of this is important for any winemaker. Even at 1500 feet elevation, the Texas Hill Country was once an ancient sea floor. With salt water and calcium forming the bedrock of limestone, the complexity of our terroir is further underscored. We now have yet another reason to cherish this opportunity to plant our vineyard in April. An awakening that begins the next chapter in the forever tale of this beautiful region of the world. This perfect fossil specimen will be on display in our wine cellar, a validation that everything we do is interconnected.

We move from winter into spring. We walk the eternal bridge linking past, present and future. Ancient limestone terraces. Heritage oaks. And soon, a new vineyard.

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Travis and Hot Shot – The Origin Love Story of Two Siboney Cellars Wines

Travis and Hot Shot - a Siboney Love Story
Miguel and Barbara were married February 15, 2008.

[Note from Miguel: The big Texas #IceStorm2021 disrupted pretty much everything including this blog entry which was to mark the debut of the new website. Now that power has been restored we can update you on many things!]

Like you, we often wonder about the inspiration for wine names. Truth is, before we even named Siboney Cellars, we knew the first two wines would be named Travis and Hot Shot.

Barbara and I were married February 15, 2008. Prior the wedding, Barbara lived in Philadelphia, and I lived in Austin. We kept a running game of Scrabble going online, for many months. I played under an alias, Travis, because after years of spelling “L-E-C….U-O…. N-A” for Austin restaurant waiting lists (remember those???), I simplified to “Travis, party of 2” because every Texan can spell Travis! So that stuck. I was fortunate to win many of the early contests. But as is typical for Barbara, her competitiveness and determination are pretty much unstoppable. And sure enough, she got on a hot streak, and won 7 games in a row. So I wrote to her and said, “okay Hot Shot that’s enough of that!” Next thing I knew, she changed her Alias to Hot Shot.

Travis and Hot Shot were printed on the matchbooks for our wedding, and so naturally they are the first red and white wines for Siboney Cellars. And now you know the rest of the Love Story!

As for the wines? Both are delightful Texas blends of Rhone varietals, and we will create these each year. The 2017’s sold out. The new 2018 Hot Shot (Roussanne, Marsanne and Viognier) is now available in our wine store. And the 2019 Travis (Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre) is in barrel, and will debut this Spring. We’re sure you will show both of them nothing but Love!

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Siboney Cellars announces new Texas Hill Country winery site, partnership and expansion plans.

Have you heard the news? Siboney Cellars is coming to Wine Road 290 in the Texas Hill Country!

Yesterday, we announced a new partnership and the acquisition of a 52 acre parcel of land ideally suited for a full Texas Hill Country winery, production facility, tasting room and vineyards. The site is beautiful — a classic Hill Country property featuring a limestone plateau, rolling hills, heritage oaks, a fertile field, stepped terraces suitable for vineyard planting, and over 100 feet of elevation changes, rising to a plateau of 1500 feet.

The new home for Siboney Cellars Is the culmination of a long held vision, made possible by a new partnership we are very blessed to have, and a search that criss-crossed the Hill Country. It is ideally situated for our plans:

Location – With frontage directly on Wine Road 290, adjacent to Lewis Wines, the new home for Siboney Cellars is situated between Hye and Johnson City, continuing the development of the eastern corridor of WR290. We look forward to taking our place among the neighboring wineries in the area and participating as a 100% Texas house.

Vineyards – this site holds a promise for true Texas Terroir – a term we believe in when it is applied to an appellation or specific location. With limestone plateaus, north-facing terraces, and a soil structure that may prove favorable for vineyard growth, we are excited about the potential of estate wines.

Views – the limestone plateau rises 100 feet above the entry point on 290, and affords commanding views. We have many plans to share these views with you!

And the new partnership? We are delighted to introduce the Waldrips to the Texas Wine community, and over the next few weeks we will do exactly that. We met Bill and Mary Anne Waldrip at a wine writer’s event hosted at Boot Ranch in 2015 – one of many industry tours and events we have attended together. Mary Anne poured our first wine – the 2017 Coral Rosé, at the Texas Wine Revolution last year. And together, we have unlocked a mutual passion for creating a wonderful winery in the Hill Country. We can’t wait for you to meet them!

Needless to say, Barbara and I are over the moon! We just returned from our first 2019 trip to the High Plains and are excited about the this year’s vintage potential. With our collaboration at Hawk’s Shadow Winery continuing through 2019 and into 2020, the new partnership, and the new location coming to WR290, we can bring our vision into focus, put more quality grapes into Barbara’s capable hands, and put more Siboney wine into your own cellar. And as always, There’s a million things we haven’t done. Just you wait!! ~MRL

Siboney Cellars – The inspiration Behind the Name

Siboney Cellars takes its name from a personal metaphor that speaks to the journey of the owners, and is embodied in several meanings of the word, Siboney (See-Bo-NAY)

  • Siboney is a beautiful old Cuban song written in 1929 by Ernesto Lecuona.  A true child prodigy and prolific songwriter, Lecuona composed many classical pieces, theatrical plays, and ground-breaking Afro-Cuban songs.  Well known in Cuba, Latin America and the USA, nominated for an Academy Award, and inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, his musical career spanned 5 decades before his passing in 1963 in the Canary Islands.
  • Siboney  was adopted in Cuba as a cross-over song with great popular appeal (well before Fidel Castro), to the point where it became an unofficial national anthem — the song is played by the television network at the end of broadcast each night.  
  • Siboney has been recorded in dozens of arrangements over the decades, and featured by artists including Placido Domingo and Bing Crosby, and more contemporary to Texas, The Mavericks (who one day we hope to meet).  Listen to the original classical version by Ernesto Lecuona, the flawless interpretation by virtuoso Thomas Tirino, and several by the Buena Vista Social Club. 
  • Lyrically, in English, Siboney is nothing more than a catchy pop tune evoking the rhythms of a Havana night club, crooned by Bing Crosby.  The original Spanish lyrics, however, written by Lecuona, are a different matter.  The Canto Siboney speaks of a man calling to his one eternal love, without whom he cannot live.  The one who he asks to come to him, the treasure in his heart valued beyond all.  That even in the murmuring of the palm trees in the breeze, he wishes to be thought of by his one true love.  Entreating for his love to hear his voice, his clarion call, his voice of crystal, and not to lose this calling amid the many distractions of life, he loves her, and without her love, he will die.  This, without doubt, is passion defined. Perhaps in a future post we will showcase the lyrics in Spanish, as we are seeking permission to feature a version sung in Spanish that is particularly haunting in its rendition.  
  • This life journey — to discover, recognize and follow the clarion call – to hear life’s passions – and not to lose track of the fragility of this song in the midst of life’s chaos – this is the passion that brought the owners together 10 years ago.  And it happened on a trip in Bordeaux.  Since that moment, Barbara and Miguel have endeavored to stay in touch with this calling. 
  • Siboney Cellars is the embodiment of this journey.  Siboney Cellars is a life’s passion. Pursued, realized, savored.

The composer of Siboney, Ernesto Lecuona, is Miguel’s great uncle.  

Would you like to hear Siboney as it was originally composed for solo piano?  We have permission from BIS recording artist Thomas Tirino to feature his virtuoso recording of Canto Siboney here, and it is the only one we know of that faithfully replicates the version Ernesto recorded in 1954 for RCA, for there is no sheet music of this rendition. Mr. Tirino executed this recording through his own efforts by ear, in 1995.  Bravo Thomas, thank you for allowing us to feature you!