NOVEMBER 2016 FORBES ASIA | 89YAO GOES RED
which are already a hit with the wine press. International
market-maker Robert Parker, of The Wine Advocate,
wrote, “I am aware of all the arguments that major celeb-
rities lending their names to wines is generally a formula
for mediocrity, but... the two Cabernets are actually bril-
liant, and the Reserve bottling ranks alongside just about
anything made in Napa.” Parker gave the 2012 Reserve an
all-star ranking of 96 points.
Yao himself, reached on a fall afternoon in the midst of
harvest, keeps it in perspective: “We are still very young,
and we have so much still to learn,” he said of his opera-
tion, which produced its first wine from the 2009 vintage.
But Yao and his team are humble only to an extent:
The current 2012 Yao Ming Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
sells for $225 a bottle from the winery (Sherry-Lehmann
in New York City ofers the 2010 Reserve at $645). The
nonreserve 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $100. The
prices of these flagship wines—there is also a less ex-
pensive Napa Crest line—pits them against a world-class
competitive set. (In the U.S., for example, $225 would be
more than enough to buy a bottle of 2012 Sassicaia from
Tuscany, and with a little shopping two bottles of 2012
Château Ducru-Beaucaillou from Bordeaux.)
Given his ambitions, Yao was fortunate in hiring Cali-
fornia veteran Tom Hinde as president and winemaker.
Hinde had previously made wine at the top-notch Flow-
ers, in Sonoma County, and for various high-end Jackson
Family Wines projects. Yao knew exactly what kind of
wine he wanted to make—the kind of rich-but-balanced
luxury reds he’d come to enjoy in Houston steakhouses.
“That’s how my drinking history started,” he explains.
“Wait,” he adds, laughing, “does that sound bad? My
‘drinking history’?” And Hinde had the on-the-ground
knowledge to source the grapes for just such a wine: a
little from here, a little from there.
Buying grapes from six vine-
yards with difering characteristics,
from the San Francisco Bay-cooled
south to volcanic hillsides to the
warm northern part of the valley,
Hinde takes a “spice box” approach
to constructing the flagship wines.
In the end they are, he says, classic
Napa Valley Cabernets. But Yao,
who flies in from Shanghai for
all the key decision making, very
much directs the nuances of the
style. While basketball fans may
remember the 7’6” center crashing
the boards, away from the court he
is apparently a man who appreci-
ates delicacy.
“These wines are very much
driven by what he values,” Hinde
says. “They are all about harmony. You won’t find over-
use of oak or purposely high alcohol or overextracted
fruit. There is an elegance you might not find in other
wines.”
It is a style the Yao family team hopes will continue
to find favor in China and in Asia generally, where the
company sells about 30% of its production. This is no
small feat given that the premium wine market in China
has slackened along with the economy. Tarifs, VAT and
generally higher markups at wholesale and retail es-
sentially double U.S. retail prices for wine inside China,
meaning that Yao Family’s entry-level Napa Crest Red,
$48 at the St. Helena tasting room, climbs to about $80
in China. The Yao Ming Napa Cabernet, at $250, and
the Reserve, at $450, are very much high-end luxury
products.
Still, Hinde believes that Yao Family is selling more
fine wine in China than any other Napa producer, though
like all American wineries it faces a market long domi-
nated by French labels. “Obviously,” says Yao Ming, “Bor-
deaux is more famous than Napa Valley in China. But we
are catching up.”
If so, Yao himself may be a big factor. A major celeb-
rity in China—it was Yao, after all, who carried the 2008
Olympic torch into Tiananmen Square—he is, as Hinde
puts it, “a huge door-opener. He gives us the ability to
start those conversations and get people to taste the
wines.”
So, of course, does the new Napa Valley tasting room,
where about a third of the visitors so far have come from
the burgeoning numbers of Chinese tourists. “We run into
my countrymen a lot in our tasting room,” Yao says proudly.
And more, many more, are likely to come. For Yao Ming the
good news in 2016 was just a beginning.Signing bonus: The 2013 Family Reserve comes with Yao’s autograph on the label.F