The wine market is booming in China, and basketball pro-turned entrepreneur Yao Ming has latched onto the craze, launching his own eponymous California wine label made exclusively for the Chinese market.
The first 5,000-case run from Yao Family Wines will be distributed by French beverage giant Pernod Ricard SA and aimed at high-end consumers, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the WSJ:
The wine, made from cabernet sauvignon grapes harvested in 2009 from California's Napa Valley, is priced at 1,775 yuan (US$289) a bottle. (The price includes a 27% import duty and a 17% sales tax.) A second wine, called Yao Family Reserve, will be released later this year, and its small 500-case production will be even pricier.
While Yao's company doesn't currently own any California vineyards, it plans to purchase land as part of its long-term business plan.
Yao, who now lives in Shanghai after an 9-year career with the Houston Rockets, credits fellow basketball player Dikembe Mutombo, a 7-foot-2-inch Congolese player, with introducing him to wine.
Yao's also the owner of a wine bar and restaurant in Houston.
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