Yao Ming’s Napa Winery Stoops to Conquer China’s Middle Class

(WSJ) - Yao Ming’s career as a top-end California winery owner is entering a new phase: He’s stepping downmarket. Slightly.

The Chinese former NBA all-star has added a new, cheaper wine to Yao Family Wines, his two-year-old winery in the Napa Valley, to appeal to China’s growing middle class. The wine launched this week in China and will be released in the U.S. in January.

That isn’t to say it’s cheap. While it represents a climb down for the 7-foot-6 former Houston Rockets center, Napa Crest – a 2010 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot grapes with rich plum notes – will retail in China for 535 yuan ($87), a price tag still out of reach of most ordinary Chinese citizens. Yao Family Wines’ previous offerings, all reds, have ranged from 1,775 yuan a bottle for Yao Ming Napa Valley, to 6,125 yuan for a bottle for its premium Yao Ming Family Reserve.

Tom Hinde, the winemaker at Yao Family Wines, says the new addition has his boss’s stamp of approval. “This is his new house wine,” he said. “He tasted it, gave his feedback and he likes this one a lot.”

Many wealthy Chinese, including the actress Zhao Wei, have been buying up vineyards, primarily in France’s Bordeaux region. But Mr. Yao has gone a different route in pursuing his viticultural dreams. Rather than purchasing a vineyard, he teamed up with Mr. Hinde and others to start his own brand, using grapes grown on rented land from California vineyards.