28 May 2018

Du raisin, etc.

We, and especially the local vignerons, are lucky that our little hail shower on Saturday lasted only 2 or 3 minutes. On my walk in the vineyard yesterday morning, I didn't see any evidence of damage to the vines or grapes. Neither have I heard about any hail over in Chinon or Bourgueil, west of the city of Tours. I did read that down in Poitiers, 90 kilometers south of Tours, Saturdays storm was a major wind event, with branches and trees down, but no hail fell.


Some of the vines in the local vineyards — depending on the grape variety, I guess — already have tiny grapes on them, as in the photo above. Or are these flower buds that haven't opened yet? I'm not sure. Either way, if all goes well they will turn into grapes. There seem to be a lot of them compared to past years, and I guess that's because we've had better-than-decent weather since April. No frost. No black ice. Some chilly mornings but mostly warm afternoons, and not much rain.


Some of the other grape varieties have little white flowers on them, like the one above. I'm pretty sure these are of the Chasselas variety. There's just a very small parcel of them. Some growers around here make wine from Chasselas, but they are also good table grapes. The Chasselas wines are only semi-dry and these days are kind of an acquired taste. Over in Pouilly-sur-Loire, a good hour east of Saint-Aignan, a lot of acreage is planted in Chasselas, and made into a wine called, well, Pouilly-sur-Loire. The more renowned Pouilly wine is called Pouilly Fumé, and it, like the white wines of neighboring Sancerre, is made with Sauvignon Blanc grapes only.


Meanwhile, the frogs are still raising a ruckus in the little pond out behind our back gate. But it depends on the morning. Today, when I took the dog out for a pee, the frogs were quiet. That surprised me, because the temperature this morning is so mild (18ºC, near 65ºF). A lot of our summer mornings are not that warm.


Finally, here's one more insect that I haven't identified. There seem to be a lot of insects this year. I assume that's because we had a mild winter and now we are having a very mild month of May. I haven't seen or felt any mosquitoes, however. Maybe the frogs out back are eating them and their larvae for us.

12 comments:

  1. this is a test. this is a test.

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  2. Your test is coming through here in Texas. Great frog 'painting.'

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  3. I tried a Google image search, by image, and haven't gotten anything better than, "cricket" for your insect. I'm curious, now. If you find out, please comment :)

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    1. How 'bout if we name it the target bug?

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  4. That's interesting that there's some Chasselas grapes in your area. Many years ago when we visited France I would get grape juice at the market that was made from the Chasselas grape variety, but I didn't realize that wine was made from it. Then I had Chasselas wine from the part of Savoie right near Switzerland, then from Switzerland itself, and they were quite good. I believe that Chasselas is the principal wine grape variety in Switzerland.

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  5. I sent a test comment because for some reason Blogger has stopped sending me copies of all comments via e-mail. Walt is having the same problem so it's not just my blog acting up. Keeping up with comments on the last three or four posts isn't that hard to do. But if somebody posts a comment on a post from 5 or 8 years ago, I'm likely to miss it without the e-mail notification. And I do regularly get comments or spam on long-ago posts that I would like either to reply to or just delete.

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    1. Can you also see comments in the "Awaiting Moderation" section of your blogger work page, under "Comments"? It's not as efficient, of course, because you have to check manually periodically.

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    2. Although, just today, I'm not getting my "awaiting moderation" page to open. Maybe this is all related.

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    3. My awaiting moderation page does work, but I like getting comments as e-mails better.

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  6. Surely, the best known "Pouilly" wine is "Pouilly Fuisse'" which admittedly is not from your region.
    Roderick

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    1. Apples and oranges, R. Pouilly Fuissé is a Burgundy made with Chardonnay. And I think Pouilly Fumé is better known in the U.S. because "fumé"-style Sauvignon Blanc wines are made in California.

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  7. For the beetle my best guess is Melyridae or Cleridae but I can't find an exact match. It's obviously female though.

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