Grape Flowers!

Ever seen them?  Well they are easy to miss.  The little bud suddenly bursts and there are all these little  tiny feelers with little white puffs at the ends that make up the flower. (How very scientific of me, I know! Click on the picture to see more detail.)  There is also a sweet fragrance that they give off, very subtle, but once you notice it, there's no mistaking that the vineyards are in full flower. It's amazing, you go away for a week and suddenly everything has changed. Both the Syrah and the Grenache vines are in flower, the Mourvèdre is, as usual, a bit behind.  There's an old adage in Burgundy, that harvest will be 100 days from flowering.  If you count 100 days from today that means we'll be harvesting around September 9th...we'll see if it holds true for the south!