Wine news August 21, 2015

New York Times Travel visits Castello di Ama in Tuscany. "But just as famous as its grapes is the Pallanti family’s contemporary art collection which, sprinkled throughout the Castello’s medieval borgo, includes a Louise Bourgeois sculpture called “Topiary” (ingeniously hidden beneath a grate in the cantina floor) and an Anish Kapoor light installation, “Aima,” that illuminates the estate’s tiny chapel."

The Guardian on affordable sparkling beyond Prsecco.

In the New York Times Eric Asimov on the California draught and its impact on the winemaking. "n the most far-reaching effort, Delicato has begun to study how to make its irrigation more efficient. Using a combination of soil-moisture probes and infrared cameras carried by drones, it is mapping a 200-acre swatch of vineyard almost vine by vine according to the soil’s ability to retain water."

Le Pan on sales declines in the wine auction market.

W. Blake Gray on why people like to bash the Wine Bloggers Conference.

Punch on island wines under $25.