Flowering in the Vineyard

The first signs of flowering occurred in our Chardonnay and the photo on the right was taken on June 16. This is very similar to what happened last year on June 17th, when I blogged about The Sight of One Flower Blooming. It would appear that our Chardonnay is the first to bloom, followed by our Chenin blanc and then the Auxerrois.
Fast forward to Saturday, June 25, when we had our "thank you BBQ" for the people who came to help us plant our 4200 new vines. When we took our friends into the vineyard to see the results of their labor, we saw many tiny grapes the result of successful self pollination.

Indeed, conditions were ideal between June 17th and June 25th with no rain at all and moderate temperatures not exceeding 80 degrees Fahrenheit. While these conditions are ideal for fruit set, it is not so ideal for our newly planted vines. We have not had any significant rainfall since Monday, May 30th when we had a total of 1-inch of rainfall between early Sunday morning and Monday, Memorial Day. In one of our lessons learned (90% at the School of Hard Knocks), we know that newly planted vines need water, so while we wait (and wait) for our well pump installation to occur, we have been hand watering our new vines.