Our flagship wine brand, this elegant, refined and powerful wine is quintessential Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Aged in French oak barrels for 18 months, Yao Ming Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is everything you come to expect from a great Napa cab.

Appearance exhibits a rich ruby hue. Aromas are forward and elegant with red fruit depth and flavors of cherry, blackberry and cassis with hints of spice, mineral, slate and violet hints that lead to vanilla tones. On the palate the wine is austere and concentrated with supple tannins and balanced acidity. This wine will age gracefully, and can be enjoyed for many years to come.

Vineyards range from Sugar Loaf Mountain in Southern Napa to the Wollack Vineyard in St. Helena. The clonal selection includes Cabernet Sauvignon 337, 4 and 6. The soils are alluvial fan and volcanic rock at an elevation between 70– 548.6 meters (200–1800 feet) above sea level.

Fruit was rigorously hand-sorted and fully destemmed to small stainless steel tanks with no crushing. Cold soaks (5-7 days), warm fermentations between 29– 32°C (85-90°F), and moderate pumpovers (twice a day or less) were done to adapt to the grapes composition after long, dry growing season and scattered storms in early October . Total skin contact ranged from 19-34 days with all fermentations being carefully basket pressed and put to barrel on full fermentation lees for malolactic fermentation (ML). Racking was twice per year with only one assemblage being done to allow the blend to “marry” in barrel. Barrels for final blend were hand selected by taste. Native yeast and ML used with only small lots conducted using cultured Bordeaux isolates. Bottled without filtration.