It’s a Friday afternoon in Shanghai and I’m quiet excited to meet Tom Hinde, president and director of winemaking at Yao Family Wines, based in Napa, California. Tom has been on a promotional tour in China for the last five weeks; quiet a long time for a visitor. I understand he is looking forward to going back home tomorrow and seeing his family and vineyards in the US.
As we order our drinks in the coffee shop where we chose to meet, I am surprised to hear him give his order in good Chinese, better than most of the expats I have spent my time with during the last three years. Tom explains to me that he has been touring in Asia intensively for the past four years, and his destinations are usually where the Chinese roots are: Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, and of course Mainland China, where Shanghai remains the main city for business.
Indeed, the Shanghai-born basketball superstar Yao Ming can be seen everywhere in the economic capital, such as in numerous advertisements on taxi media screens and huge posters on buildings. No doubt Shanghai has found its hero. But today, we are mostly here to talk about wine!
When I ask Tom about Yao’s hero status, he answers that it has “its good and bad sides.” Probably good when the red carpet is thrown to the owner and winemaker in front of luxurious VIP clubs and hotels in Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangdong or Beijing. And bad would likely be when some people miss seeing Yao for who he really is: a humble Chinese business and family man, a food and wine lover, who happened to be the best Chinese player from the NBA.
In the restaurant business, Yao’s father imparted his passion for gastronomy and showed him all different kind of foods around China. Yao was fascinated with the difference in styles and cultures that his country offered. When he moved to Houston, Texas for his basketball career, he started to taste wines and had a growing interest in Napa cabernet-centered balanced red wines.
In 2008, Tom and Yao met for the first time. Tom, who learned about winemaking at UC Davies and through his 30-year career at Kendall Jackson, was an independent wine consultant then. The two decided to work together and agreed on the three most important criteria for their wines: balance, sense of origin and ageing potential.
They selected and bought 17 hectares in Napa that they farm, producing around 5,000 cases a year. Tom has extensive experience working with cabernet sauvignon from his time with Kendall Jackson, and I find it interesting the way he talks about working with pinot noir: “Pinot makes you a better winemaker, mostly because it makes you humble and more disciplined.” At Yao Family Wines, he is using his viticulture and winemaking skills to seek finesse and elegance with his wines.
Yao Family Wines has three labels for now, which are all Bordeaux blends and cabernet sauvignon dominant: the entry wine “Napa Crest,” their flagship “Yao Ming Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon,” and their top cuvee “Yao Ming Napa Valley Family Reserve.”
The first vintage was 2009, which provides richness and good fruit character among Napa classics. However, they started to get good recognition for their wines with the 2010 vintage. Tom explains, “It was a wet vintage, but we managed it well and the wine now shows great elegance and ageing potential.” The 2011 was the most difficult vintage so far, with an overall cold year and a harvest that finished in the middle of November. The 2012 and 2013 vintages are still in barrels and seem very promising, Tom says. At this point he is sensing that 2013 could even be the best Yao Family wine so far, with great purity found in the cabernet sauvignon.
When I ask Tom how he sees the future at Yao Family Wines, he answers, “We are new compared to other wineries and we are on our way to make the wines we want to; we need to do well each year to progress. We have a long-term vision with Yao – I hope to retire at the estate one day and Yao also hopes his children will take over.”
What an interesting meeting with Tom. I have to say that I was a little prejudiced about Yao Family Wines before, thinking it was mostly a commercial move and that there wasn’t necessarily passion for wine in the project. I was wrong. Without having met Yao, yet seeing Tom and the way he talks about him, I can imagine that these two men get along and share the same priorities in life – focused on family, hard work and wine.
James tasted their three labels of the acclaimed 2010 vintage recently. Check out his tasting notes and scores.
-Alex Centeleghe
2010 Yao Ming Napa Valley Napa Crest
2010 Yao Ming Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
2010 Yao Ming Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Family Reserve
