For those with ample money to spend and a die hard interest in quality spirits, take note: Bonhams is once again hosting Asia’s largest Japanese Whisky auction, with a chance to score one of the world’s rarest bottlings: a 50 year old Yamazaki. A full catalog of auction items is currently ready for perusal. So get your currency converted and ready to go for August 15th, because this is sure to be quite good fun. [The Drinks Business]

We haven’t had a celebrity endorsement of interest in quite some time. For a while it seemed as if there was one appearing at least once a week, but this one is a bit different. E-40 has been in the rap game for a long time with a reasonable amount of success, establishing a loyal fan base and with longevity most other rappers would enviously take if given the option. What makes his story so great is the second act of his career: Building a pretty successful stable of wine releases over the past two years. The Sacramento Bee goes on to call him the “Robert Mondavi of hip-hop”, but we’d like to think of him as a pretty great grape wrangler independent of his music career. [Sacramento Bee]

Elsewhere, 10 Barrel Beer is currently recalling bottles of two brands of beer due to bottles exploding. Its “Beer #1” and appropriately-named “Swill” lines have been having fermentation problems resulting in exploding glass bottles. [King 5 News]

Forbes runs a profile piece on Buffalo Trace, the latest in a seemingly long line of articles about the distillery in the last months. Not much here that fans don’t already know, but for people just discovering the brand it may be worth a read.[Forbes]

And finally today, a sobering look at climate change, how it’s impacting wine production in Australia and Africa, and what the future holds for the industry both in terms of quality and quantity. [Quartz]

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