Since his sudden and unfortunate retirement from the NBA back in July, Yao Ming has turned the page of his life and quickly focused on a new set of goals. For starters, he has been attending one of the most prestigious schools in China. Yao has also continued to work toward raising money for charities, which is what he hopes to do with his latest entrepreneurial idea: bottling a selling his own wine.
According to China Daily, Yao will debut his wine this Sunday at an auction held by the Special Olympics in East Asia. The bottle, which is called “Yao Ming: a 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon,” comes in a 1.5-liter container and is extremely rare and expensive. There are 1,200 bottles in existence — none of which will be sold on the open market — and each one costs about $596 or 3,800 yuan.
“He did this because he is one of the biggest sports stars in the world,” Ma Guoli of the China branch of Infront Sports and Media AG said. “He is running a basketball team now, going to a university to further broaden his horizons and is also devoted to charity. Although some other sports stars have explored new lines of work after retirement, Yao is one of the few who can do everything so brilliantly. And everyone has his own ambitions.”
Personally, I’d like to see Yao’s wine hit the open market so we could see how it stacks up against Steve Spurrier’s creation or the San Diego Chargers bottle. If I had to take a guess, I’d say Yao’s probably tastes the best.
H/T to the USA Today’s Game On! for passing the story along
