Chateau Picard Wine Is Real

Set down your cup of Earl Grey tea and pour a real glass of wine from a fictional Starfleet captain.

According to Spencer Brewer, COO of Wines that Rock, which facilitated the project, Star Trek producers had been trying for years to make a Château Picard wine. The problem and solution turned out to be the same: There already is a Château Picard, in Bordeaux’s St.-Estèphe region, with its own centuries-old reputation. Earlier this year, Wines that Rock and Mähler-Besse, the company that owns the cru Bourgeois estate, finally got the ball rolling together. As they pored over what labels for a Star Trek cuvée might look like, CBS had news: A new Star Trek series was about to be shot, prominently featuring bottles of Picard’s wine (e.g. Picard). Now, after a few months of wrangling with the various agencies that regulate interplanetary alcohol trade on Earth, the Château Picard bottles with the Captain Picard labels are available to buy this week, along with a Special Reserve United Federation of Planets Zinfandel.

“We released the collector’s set [of both bottles] at 10:00 [Tuesday] morning, and all 1,700 sold out by 9:00 that night,” Brewer told Unfiltered from a Star Trekconvention in Las Vegas. “The reaction [from fans] is instant: ‘Wow, you’ve got to be kidding me, that really is the Château Picard from the Château Picard in Bordeaux?'” Indeed it is: the same 85/15 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot 2016 Château Picard bottled under the château’s normal label, though the Jean-Luc label bears the vintage 2386. “It is quite fun to work on such a project, since this is not necessarily what we are used to in the industry,” Mähler-Besse rep Patrick De Abreu told Unfiltered via email.

For making the Zin, Brewer also had a vision: “If you’re going to go to a Federation dinner or a representative meeting of all the planets 200 years in the future, what would people be proud of to serve on the table?” he explained, ultimately deciding it would be a three-vineyard Dry Creek Valley old-vine blend. The bottle, a tapered cuboid that stands two inches taller than its Bordeaux counterpart, had to be filled and corked by hand, as 21st-century technology has not produced a bottling line advanced enough to process it. That wine hasn’t gotten any screen time—yet. Picard is still filming, and, Brewer told us, the series prop director has a few bottles to use on set. As the good captain himself once said, things are only impossible until they’re not.

Star Trek: The Next Generation fans and anyone who has seen the trailers for the upcoming Star Trek: Picard series know that Chateau Picard is Jean-Luc Picard’s family vineyard in France’s La Barre region. What they may not be aware of is the fact that Chateau Picard is also the name of an award-winning, multi-generational vineyard in the Bordeaux region of France. Wines that Rock has joined forces with the actual Chateau Picard vineyard to introduce the 2016 Chateau Picard Bordeaux, which is an 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot blend that is subtly smoky and spicy with a bright, fresh, clean-tasting style. The wine spends 14 months in oak, 70% seasoned and 30% new. 

The upcoming Star Trek: Picard series premieres early 2020 on CBS All Access. Both wines are available exclusively at Star Trek Wines.

by Risa Suraya