• The late Robert Mondavi’s 11,500-square-foot, two-bedroom home, originally listed for $25 million back in 2010, is now being auctioned off with the bargain basement opening bid set at $13.9 million. [Napa Valley Register]
• A biodynamic winemaker in the Loire region of France is thumbing his nose at the wine establishment and has stopped using the term AOC on his labels in protest. [Decanter]
• San Franciscans are getting really good at composting, and a record amount of that compost is getting shipped to vineyards in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys for fertilizer this year. [WSJ]
• In order to make their vintage releases all the more exclusive — and distinct from the plebeian, non-vintage, Yellow-label stuff — Veuve Cliquot is going to start releasing a vintage only every three or four years. [Decanter]
• The low yields from vineyards this year in California, combined with the cool growing season, could mean an exceptional vintage — and a pricier one. [AP/Mercury News]
• Eric Asimov now declares in the Times that the Finger Lakes region in New York State is making world-class Rieslings. Some wineries are doing pretty well with Cabernet franc, too. [NYT]
