Yao Family Wines was founded with their 2009 vintage and takes its namesake from proprietor Yao Ming, a retired professional basketball player who spent his entire NBA career with the Houston Rockets. He was drafted with the number one pick in the 2002 NBA draft (the first ever international number one NBA pick). His rookie year was documented in the film, The Year of the Yao and later co-authored an autobiography titled Yao: A Life in Two Worlds. He played in the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008. While still playing in the NBA in 2009 he purchased the Shanghai Sharks, of the China Basketball League and a team that Yao formerly played for. He sold the team in 2019.
During his career, he made the NBA All-Star team eight times. He was the tallest player in the NBA during his final season in 2010/2011. At only age 30, his career was cut short by persistent ankle and foot injuries. In 2016 he was elected to the NBA Hall of Fame along with other former notable players including Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson and Sheryl Swoopes of the WNBA. He is still the tallest player ever to be elected to the NBA Hall of Fame. And he has been the chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association since 2017. During his playing time in the NBA, as expected, the Houston Rockets were the most popular basketball team in China and Yao is arguably the most famous athlete from China on the planet.
Standing at 7 feet 6 inches, Yao is certainly the tallest Napa Valley wine brand owner. He made his mark in the world of basketball and now he is focusing on producing premium wines from Napa Valley. His first wine released in China, was in 2011 and was the 2009 vintage of the Yao Ming Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
He was introduced to wine through a friend during his time playing professional basketball as well as from players ordering wine at dinners during road trips (a common story we’ve heard from several of the athlete run brands in Napa Valley). And from personal experience visiting Houston, there are certainly a plethora of steak restaurants; when one has steak, an ideal pairing is with a well-made red wine. Yao’s passion and knowledge for wine grew and ultimately, he decided to start Yao Ming wine brand. His home base is in Shanghai (where he was born), but he is in Napa Valley several times a year.
When Yao first voiced interest in making premium Napa wines he visited a number of larger wineries in both Napa and Sonoma, but these wineries wanted to market his wine with their name as a part of the brand. Eventually he found industry veteran Tom Hinde (who we originally met with). Tom has worked in the wine industry for over 3 decades spending 18 years with Kendall-Jackson, serving as their General Manager for some 9 years. He was also General Manager of La Crema and more recently President, CEO and Director of wine making for Flowers Vineyard and Winery (Sonoma Coast). In 2007 he started his own business, Wine Trends Marketing and currently works with a number of premium smaller brands.
Since his partnership with Yao, Tom has visited China numerous times (learning some Mandarin in the process, not always an easy language because of its tonal nature for native English speakers). Note: Tom is no longer the winemaker for Yao Ming.
Winemaking/Select Wines
Their winemaking team prefers parts of the valley that have moderate temperatures during the growing season and tend to source grapes from locations that are geographically closer to the center of the valley. Currently they source from six vineyards in Napa County ranging from Coombsville in the south to several mountain vineyards (Atlas Peak, Soda Canyon) up through Yountville and St. Helena.
The focus is on two labels: YAO MING (their flagship wine) and Napa Crest.
YAO MING Wines
The 2022 YAO MING Family Table Napa Valley Merlot includes a skosh of Malbec; this wine is medium ruby in color. The bouquet is red fruited to the core with aromas of cherry, raspberry compote and strawberry, accompanied by sage, white pepper, tobacco and plenty of old cedar box. The addition of the Malbec adds a lovely floral lift including scents of lilacs and lavender. We like how these two varieties play together in the right proportions. On the palate, the first flavor we noted was of raspberry, with additional layers of cherry cola, currant, cranberry, pomegranate, strawberry and assorted spices on the finish including of cloves, cardamom, white pepper, tobacco and a persistent note of smoked cedar and toasted oak. The tannins are grainy and lightly gravelly, persisting in tandem with the fruit on the finish. Juicy, fresh and lively this wine is already showing in a sweet spot only 3 years post vintage.
The 2021 YAO MING Lunar New Year “Dragon” Limited Edition Napa Valley Red Wine is a blend of Petit Verdot, Zinfandel and Syrah, with the majority of the vineyard sources located in the southern part of the valley. This wine is deep ruby in color; generous, open knitted and both fruity and savory, this wine is an olfactory party for the nose. Its scents include ripe cherry, blackberry pie, boysenberry, Himalayan purple mulberry, Satsuma plum at the peak of its ripeness, baker’s chocolate, mocha, toast and a dried herb component including of white sage. Brimming with brightness and freshness as a result of its lively acidity, this wine flows across the palate with plenty of energy. Its fruit tones lean more towards the red end of the spectrum, I.E., cherry, currant, plums, boysenberry and not fully ripe blueberry. Finishes juicy, racy and savory with grainy and gravelly tannins continuing to persist beyond the fruit on the extended finish. Lingers with a note of crushed peppercorn, smoked sage, dried bay leaf, a chalkiness, a tart red-fruited character and dried tobacco leaf. This wine is clearly built to age; in its youth we would love to pair it with a lean ribeye and a BBQ.
The 2018 YAO MING Family Table, Napa Valley Red Wine is dark ruby in color; the bouquet offers aromas of blackberry, dark and ripe cherry, black raspberry, Pakistani mulberry, suede leather, a light woodsy spice, crushed peppercorn, creosote, dried mushroom, dark chocolate, mocha and espresso. Give this wine time, the bouquet will become more expressive of its core fruit characteristics. The palate reveals flavors of dark plum, dark raspberry, cherry, currant, a sweet tobacco spice and a light note of peppercorn on the finish. This wine lingers with a warmth of alcohol and grainy but integrated tannins. This bottling is balanced at the time of our tasting 5 years post vintage. If this was a summer day and its not even close with cold rain falling outside, we would pair with this a tri-tip from the BBQ.
The 2017 YAO MING Homeport Red Dessert Wine is a unique blend of 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Zinfandel and 30% Syrah. Fermentation was stopped with fortification at 9% residual sugar. This wine was aged for 23 months in 100% French oak barrels of which 75% were new. It is deep ruby in color; the intensely driven aromatics show notes of blackberry jam, boysenberry, cherry pie, baked plums, blueberry, strawberry, Mission figs, Graham cracker, milk chocolate and assorted baking spices including cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Summarizing its flavor profile in one simple word, delicious was the first adjective that came to mind. This wine tastes like dark plum, strawberries, dark raspberries and cherries accompanied by a flavor similar to toast running the length. It is balanced nicely between sweetness, flavor and acidity, with neither characteristic dominating. Lingers with loads of fruit on the extended finish, accompanied by lightly gravelly textured tannins. This wine pairs well with Empire Of The Sun, We Are The People and the volume turned up… way up. Its listed ABV is 18.8%.
Napa Crest Wines
The 2018 Napa Crest Napa Valley Red Wine, California is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. This wine is deep ruby and nearly opaque; at seven years post vintage, the bouquet is ripe, sweetly fruited and still youthful. Its aromatics include cherry pie, blackberry jam, boysenberry spread, baked plums, dark chocolate, dark cocoa powder and layers of baking spices including cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. Smells like dessert. Like on the bouquet, the fruit dominates on the palate, but with less perceptible barrel influences. This wine tastes like dark cherry, dark plum, blackberry, boysenberry, Persian mulberry and finishing notes of dark chocolate, cinnamon and nutmeg. The tannins are highly resolved at this age and linger with a seamless supple character. Despite its higher octane, with an alcohol listed as 15.2% ABV, the wine is balanced, supported in part by a bright vein of acidity.
The 2012 Napa Crest Napa Valley Red Wine is a Cabernet Sauvignon based blend with Merlot and Petit Verdot rounding out the varieties. There is a sweet note to the bouquet – perhaps like a candied apple along with hints of dried sage. The wine is perceived as being light bodied upon the entry, but shows more complexities mid palate through to the finish. It features notes of tobacco spice. The tannins are noticeable felt mostly on the sides of the palate rather than the back and are not overpowering in their textural feel.
The 2015 Napa Crest Sauvignon Blanc was their first ever white wine; this vintage includes 8% of Sémillon (fermented in neutral oak barrels). The grapes were sourced from St. Helena and Oakville. There is a noticeable herbal note on the nose; the palate offers bright acidity with notes of green and red apple. There is also a hint of sweetness which is somewhat overwritten by the acidity. This is a lighter bodied and easy drinking expression of the variety.
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Yao Family Wines became the world’s first winery to offer a wine at auction paired with NFt digital collectible with the release of their 2016 CHOP. The label on these extremely coveted and limited production bottles is the Chinese chop, a seal which dates from the Shang Dynasty (商朝), ruling from 1600 BC to 1046 BC. Graphic artist, Chuck House who is responsible for the design of some of Napa Valley’s most iconic brands created the hand-drawn illustration of Napa Valley on the front label of their wines – with the ancient Chinese character for ‘Yao. House, along with Jeffrey Caldewey were the co-founders of Icon Design Group in 1985. Their first wine label design was for Frog’s Leap Winery.
Yao is not only involved with his own winery, but he has become a humanitarian over the years – establishing the Yao Ming Foundation in 2008 after the terrible earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province and continues to contribute to educational causes in both the US and China. We were scheduled to be in Chengdu that year but our trip was canceled due to the subsequent 7.9 earthquake. And Yao is credited with significantly decreasing shark fin consumption in China with his work to ban shark fin soup.
Production is currently around 8,500 cases per year with select distribution in 16 states as well as in parts of China. After closing their tasting room in 2020, Yao Ming Wines began accepting private tastings by prior reservation available Thursday through Sundays but as of mid 2023 have since stopped accepting visits. There is current no visitation option to taste the wines. For more information, to purchase wines, or to join their wine club, visit: www.yaofamilywines.com
ARCHIVED NOTES
Former Tasting Room (permanently closed)
In late February 2016 Yao Ming moved into a tasting room in south St. Helena after the space was vacated by prior occupants, Bello Family Vineyards. In 2020 this tasting room closed permanently, and Yao Family wines vacated the building. Following a period of vacancy the building was home to Vine Star, a wine and espresso bar. The owner of Vine Star, Jay was involved with the Yao Ming brand and as a result, for a short while, visitors were able to still taste select Yao Ming wines here. As of late 2023, the Vine Star sign was removed from the exterior of the building and that business vacated the premises. As of 2025, the space has been converted into a wine cooperative tasting room called Royal We Wines featuring select brands made by winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown.
When this tasting was opened, they offered three distinctive tastings: the Access Tasting included both Yao Ming and Napa Crest wines. The Reserve Tasting featured limited production more exclusive wines and the Library Tasting featured select older vintages. The Reserve and Library tastings required reservations and both tastings were paired with a light charcuterie and local cheeses.
In addition to the main bar tasting area, three private tasting rooms and an outdoor patio area were also available. The size of this tasting room is deceiving; it is certainly one of the more sizable stand-alone (no winery) tasting rooms in all of Napa Valley and can host 130 people at any one time. The tasting room also offered select number of limited-edition wines personally signed by Yao Ming. And what used to grab visitor’s attention immediately when entering the tasting room, was a full-size cutout of Yao allowing people of ‘normal’ height a sense of just how tall he is. Yao’s Hall of Fame jacket was also on display.
During the several years this tasting room was open, it was a good thing in that it perhaps introduced primarily Chinese tourists to Napa Valley who otherwise would not have visited.
(we keep these photographs here for historical reference)
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