This week Yao’s wine business announced a new wine called “Napa Crest” that will be cheaper than his first wine (that sold out). The wine launched this week in China, and will be available in the U.S. in January.

The Wall Street Journal wrote a very informational article about the new wine and Yao’s wine business, as well as the state of wine sales and consumption in China.

More details about Yao’s new wine can be found at the Yao Family Wines web site here.

This ABC news story appeared last week in the Bay Area after Yao visited his winery in Napa Valley. Check it out!

If the video player above doesn’t play the video, you can try viewing the video here.

On Friday, Yao hosted in Shanghai a VIP banquet for celebrities and wine enthusiasts, which also served as a welcome dinner and reception for Adam Strum, the co-founder and publisher of Wine Enthusiast Magazine. Strum flew to Shanghai to launch the Mandarin edition of Wine Enthusiast Magazine.

Pictured below is the inaugural cover (June 2012) with Yao on the front, and a photo of Yao with Strum pictured behind him.

You might notice the headline on the magazine cover that mentions the “97 points” for Yao’s wine. Yao Ming’s 2009 Family Reserve received an exceptional score of 97 points from Wine Enthusiast magazine, while his 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon received a score of 95 points. The wines were rated by well-known California editor, Steve Heimoff, in the June issue of the magazine.

Click here to learn more about the ratings the wines received.

Last week it was announced that Yao will appear next month on the inaugural cover of the Mandarin version of Wine Enthusiast Magazine. Checkout the preview below where Yao is looking quite dapper.

Here’s the press release:

WINE ENTHUSIAST MAGAZINE LAUNCHES MANDARIN EDITION IN CHINA
The world’s largest wine media company reveals plans to reach millions in Greater China and Hong Kong.

New York, NY (March 19, 2012) — Wine Enthusiast has announced its launch of an entirely Mandarin edition of the magazine. Through a strategic partnership with YesMyWine.com, Wine Enthusiast Magazine will reach millions of untapped VIP Chinese wine buyers and key trade decision makers. The release of their premiere May 2012 Mandarin digital issue of the magazine will include:

1. International content for Chinese wine consumers to enjoy about wines from the United States, France, Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina, China, Australia and other parts of the wine world where Wine Enthusiast Magazine has journalists and editorial offices.

2. Tens of thousands of wine ratings and reviews based on the famous 100 point scale which will help provide the YMW customer direction for their wine purchasing needs.

3. Educational articles about wine to expand the knowledge of YMW’s customer base.

Wine Enthusiast Companies Chairman Adam M. Strum stated:

“We are very excited to bring Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s approachable, user-friendly editorial to these new wine consumers. With tasting offices in Rome, Bordeaux, New York, California and Seattle, we rate and review more than 20,000 wines per year on the famous 100 point scale. We intend to provide the new Chinese wine consumer with these reviews for purchasing direction not previously available to them at this magnitude. We will also be tasting wines from China starting this month in our New York offices. Eventually we hope to reach more than five million wine consumers and key wine trade in China.”

Checkout this video from Yao’s new wine venture, Yao Family Wines. It features their President of Winemaking Tom Hinde showing the vine on which some of their grapes are grown.

Yao Ming’s new wine business continues to get lots of attention. This time the esteemed Wine Spectator magazine interviews Yao. Check it out here.

Here’s an excellent interview of Yao Ming from Wine Enthusiast magazine published on Monday.

It’s obvious that Yao’s decision to get into the wine business is something he takes very seriously. The article goes into great detail about Yao’s experience with wines in the past, what made him choose Napa Valley as the place to have his wine produced, how involved he is with the wine making process, the influence of wine in Chinese culture, the similarities between playing basketball and making wine, and much more!

Below is some video of Yao at an event this week in Shanghai to launch his new wine. In the story we’re told that beyond the 1,200 bottles that are for sale only in the Chinese market for approximately US $280 per bottle, Yao Family Wines will be producing bottles for the U.S. market in 2012 in lower price ranges as well.

The video also explains just how big the Chinese wine market is (125 billion cases per year!), and it’s expected annual growth: 10-15%. Wowza!

You can checkout the new “Yao Family Wines” web site here that just launched today for more information about Yao’s new wine company. NOTE: the web site may be getting overwhelmed with traffic since Yao linked to it from his Facebook page, which has over 1.1 million followers. So if the web site is down, try to visit again later.

And here’s the press release from earlier today about Yao’s new venture…

ST. HELENA, Calif., Nov. 28, 2011 — /PRNewswire/ — Yao Ming, recently retired NBA star, owner of the Shanghai Sharks and humanitarian, announced today the establishment of his new Napa Valley wine company: Yao Family Wines. The company has released its inaugural wine under the brand name YAO MING®, a 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

The YAO MING® 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is available in China immediately and will be available in the United States in 2012. For more information, please visit the Yao Family Wines website at www.yaofamilywines.com.

On Sunday night in Shanghai, Yao Ming attended a Special Olympics East Asia charity gala where several items were auctioned off, including the first bottle of wine from Yao’s new winery.

The bottle of wine and a Salvatore Ferragamo shoe last from custom-made shoes recently made for Yao were auctioned off for 200,000 RMB together (US $31,000). Yao’s most recent Facebook post states that the wine made up about US $20,000 of that total. A total of 2.89 million RMB (US $450,000) was raised at the charity auction. Well done!

Click here for more photos from the charity gala and auction, thanks to Raymond in China.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal came out with an article today that goes into more details about Yao’s entry into the wine making business. It’s clear that Yao is in the business for the long haul.