Bastianich-The Buzz

Who needs RSS?

I have a little post today that is about blogging rather than wine.

On the top-left of this page you can now sign up to get automatic updates from THE BUZZ in your EMAIL! That's right, no more fuss with blog readers and RSS and all that crazy technological stuff. Just put your email in the box and ECCOLA! Done.

I try to post once a week, but it works out to more like twice a month, so I wont be THAT big of a nuisance in your InBox. I promise. I also promise that your email will be used ONLY FOR THE BLOG. I will NOT compile a mailing list for commercial purposes. So rest easy.

My point here is to get as many people reading the blog as possible on a regular basis.

I hope this helps.

BTW... My thanks go out to Jon Danby who has a REALLY COOL BLOG called Facebook for Wineries, which I found through one of my favorite sites, The Winery Website Report. I recommend following both of these closely if blogging and "Social Media" (blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc etc...) is something you're into, or thinking about getting into, which you should.

Proper post is on the way...

Flowers.

Ever wondered what a grape flower looks like? I was all excited to show you... taking plenty of pictures... but a long weekend and a couple busy days and you realize all your flowers are already changing to grapes!

After flowering, they say it's 90 days until the harvest (more or less). So the countdown has truly begun. Flowering is also a delicate moment... Pollination of the flowers means grapes. Incomplete pollination means bunches with grapes and little green pellets called "shot berries", which are good for nothing but reducing your yield.

I'll get a few pictures of the Picolit soon. Picolit is famous for uneven pollination and tiny bunches. Meanwhile take a look at what I managed to snap before the evening sun disappeared behind storm clouds...

This is a proto-bunch of (Tocai) Friulano. Obviously the little green pellets are proto-grapes. The spindly white things are the flowers.
I found this little bunch among the leaves. It's size and position makes me think it will not pass green harvesting.
This is another strange, little, contorted bunch. Serious candidate for green harvest, but a nice illustration of the flowers.