THE BOOT ST O R I E S F R O M T H E T E X A S H I L L C O U N T RY
H O W A B U S I N E SS W O M A N A N D P H I L A N T H R O P I ST ST R I V E S TO P R ES E R V E H I STO RY
A CO U P L E ’ S H O M E F I L L E D W I T H FA I T H A N D FAV O R I T ES
2022 | ISSUE 3
A FO R M I D A B L E W H I S K E Y T E A M A N D T H E K E YS TO S U CC E SS
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Barbara Lecuona and Mary Anne Waldrip
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WINE, WOMEN, AND DETERMINATION STORY BY JESSICA DUPUY
A friendship that began at a Boot Ranch wine tasting has grown into a partnership based on that shared passion.
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t’s a Saturday afternoon in the Hill Country, and the thoroughfare of State Highway 290 is abuzz with wine enthusiasts flitting from one tasting room to the next like hummingbirds in a summer garden. At one of the newest tasting rooms, Mary Anne Waldrip is welcoming first-time visitors and checking in a party for a special reserve tasting. Her staff is guiding other guests through a selection of wines, each with a unique story. From the elevated deck of the sleek, modern building, visitors look out over an expansive terraced landscape, with a nascent vineyard stretching its new canes towards the sun and a grove of oak trees tempting them with shade. Meanwhile, winemaker Barbara Lecuona is tinkering around in the adjacent winery, still under construction. Soon it will be her workspace for receiving grapes from harvest, cleaning fermentation tanks, or zooming wine barrels around on a forklift. This is Siboney Cellars, one of the latest additions to the Hill Country wine scene, and the fulfillment of a shared dream for these two hard-working women.
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If you had asked Barbara 10 years ago if she’d be launching her own Texas wine label and a full-scale winery and tasting room, she would have said you were crazy. After all, she already had a career as owner of a title insurance company. Even after she and husband Miguel moved from her native Pennsylvania to San Antonio in 2011, launching a second career in the Texas wine industry was far from anything on her vision board. But as John Lennon once sang, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Having originally met at a wine school in Philadelphia, the Lecuonas had long enjoyed wine together, traveling to some of the world’s most iconic wine regions from Napa to Bordeaux. Barbara had taken a few wine classes to better understand how to taste wines from around the world. But her first experience with Texas wine with was a revelation. Miguel was working in marketing at a telecommunications company in San Antonio when in 2011 he received a bottle of Texas wine from a colleague. He took it home to share with his wife. “We were both doubtful about what we would discover, but we were actually amazed. It was fantastic,” says Barbara. The wine was a Malbec from Hye-based William Chris Vineyards. For both it was a catalyst, encouraging them to not only be consumers of Texas wine, but to become actively involved in its production. The day after receiving the William Chris wine, Miguel quit his telecom job and went to the Hye winery to offer his services as a marketing consultant. A day later, he began working there. In 2014, the couple moved to Fredericksburg to be closer to the region’s rapidly growing wine industry. Barbara continued to run her title insurance business, but began mentioning to winemakers they met her interest in helping out. “I honestly wasn’t sure if anyone would take me seriously,” she says. “I’m sure there are a lot of people who offer to help without really knowing what they’re getting into.” To her surprise, wineries began taking her up on the offer. In 2015,
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she worked at several vineyards, pruning vines and harvesting grapes. Ben Calais of Hye-based Calais and French Connections wineries called one afternoon in 2016 and said he was looking for volunteers to help crush grapes that night. “He told me to show up at one o’clock in the morning. So I met him and his crew in the middle of the night.” The work was hard and lasted through daybreak, with the team transferring bins of grapes into Calais’ facility. While some may have shied away from such a labor-intensive endeavor, Barbara was hooked. “I loved it. I was tired. I was filthy. But it was invigorating.” She became a volunteer “cellar rat” with other wineries. That wasn’t enough to satisfy her, though. She also enrolled in the Viticulture and Enology programs at Texas Tech University. In 2017, the Lecuonas decided to start producing wines themselves, with Barbara as winemaker. She brokered space with Hawk’s Shadow Winery in Dripping Springs for production and bought grapes from growers in the High Plains near Lubbock, a common practice among upstart wineries. The first release was a rosé blend called “Coral” under the label Siboney Cellars. The Siboney name came from a popular Cuban love song written in 1929 by Miguel’s uncle, Ernesto Lecuona. It is pronounced see-bo-nay. With income from her title insurance firm and Miguel’s growing marketing and photography business, the two were able to grow the brand, making more wines by using facilities and storage space from other wineries to produce it. But that wasn’t enough for them either. They couldn’t shake the desire to establish their own place. “We began to dream about taking the next steps to establish a winery and vineyard for Siboney Cellars. But the main question was, ‘how?’” Barbara says. Enter Mary Anne Waldrip. She and husband Bill were new additions to Boot Ranch in 2015 and were eager to become better acquainted with the area. Having traveled extensively through Napa, Sonoma, and Oregon, the Waldrips were already big fans of wine, but Mary
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ABOVE: Siboney Cellars partners Miguel and Barbara Lecuona and Mary Anne and Bill Waldrip
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Anne was unfamiliar with Texas wines. As a way to meet people, she signed up for a wine tasting class offered to Boot Ranch members. As luck would have it, Barbara also attended the class, thanks to Miguel frequently shooting marketing photos for Boot Ranch. The day included seminars and a tour of a few of the area’s wineries. Mary Anne and Barbara became fast friends, sharing life stories and a similar passion for wine. “The time with Barbara made me really want to take my enthusiasm for wine to the next level,” says Mary Anne. “I was so curious about the process it took to get grapes from the vineyard to the glass.” After 25 years of working as a church youth director, she was eager to try something new. Like Barbara, she began volunteering at area wineries to learn the ropes of winemaking and winery management. She did everything from harvesting grapes, to bottling wine, to packing up cases, to punching down grapes, the latter being the process of adding color and complexity to wine by pushing the skins of the grapes down into the grape juice during fermentation. “I did it all, and I loved every minute of it,” she says. “I remember the first time I helped with punch-downs. We were working with Tannat grapes, which have very thick skins. The cap of grape skins [that had risen to the top] was so thick we had to use our arms to push them down into the juice. I was in grape juice, stems, and skin up to my shoulders. I remember thinking, ‘My skin is going to be really exfoliated by the end of this!’” When the Lecuonas shared their dream of one day opening their own winery, the Waldrips felt an urge to help them – not only financially, but with day-to-day operations as well. Having spent most of his career in the oil and gas industry and as founder of a private equity firm, Bill felt he could lend advice on how to structure the business. Mary Anne was eager to contribute her gifts in hospitality. Finding their interests, work ethic and business goals aligned, the couples formed a partnership. They set about in search of a property that would accommodate a full-scale production
facility and tasting room, as well as provide a good site for a vineyard. “The vineyard has always been my first love,” says Barbara. “I firmly believe that wine is made in the vineyard. Without good quality grapes, you can’t make good wine.” In 2019, the team broke ground on a property between Hye and Johnson City, setting up outdoor seating beneath a shady grove of oak trees to begin accepting visitors while the winery was under construction. Barbara focused on Siboney wine production, which was taking place at Kerrville Hills Winery, while Mary Anne managed construction, design, and hospitality at their new site. “It has been a gift for us to be able to divide things up so easily,” says Barbara.. “Mary Anne has a real eye for design and is fantastic with guests. It’s allowed me to stay focused on the wine itself.” The tasting room opened in January, accepting reservations and walk-ins alike. The production facility is expected to be ready for the 2022 harvest in August. Meanwhile, the team has already planted four acres of Merlot grapes and plans to add more vineyards in the coming years. Today, guests can enjoy a wide selection of Siboney wines from Rhône and Bordeaux whites and red blends to a sparkling rosé and a port-style wine. The project has required Barbara and Mary Anne to give their all. But the two say it has really been their team of four that made it possible. “If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re always an entrepreneur,” says Barbara. “If something needs to get done, you’re going to do it, whether that’s Mary Anne walking the work site for a punch list with the builder or me hopping on a forklift to move barrels. With Miguel’s experience in marketing and web development and Bill’s business formation background, we have a pretty solid team to make a dream come true.” Has it been hard work? Yes, of course. But Barbara quickly adds, “None of it’s that hard when you consider we get to share the beauty of Texas wine at a Texas vineyard in the middle of the Texas Hill Country.”
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