With the eminent release of Star Trek: Picard Season 3, I’m back to review the latest Chateau Picard wine just in time for the new season. Season 3, which Paramount has said will be the final season, moves away from the plots of the past two seasons and brings back all of the main cast from the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV Show (and movies) one last time to save the universe. A final send off to get everyone excited and also reluctantly nervous to see them all back together again.
If you remember during Episode 1 of Season 2 we saw a fun montage of Jean-Luc Picard in his home vineyards at Chateau Picard during harvest. Farming robots were basically beaming the grapes off the vines, the grapes were crushed, and then juice was beamed into the bottles. It was certainly a cool segment to watch, but was a bit strange when you understand how wine is currently made. Oh well, I’m over it.
The best part of this segment for me was seeing the new metal labels being laser etched onto the bottles. Right away, I scoured the Star Trek Wines website to see if they were available yet. It wouldn’t be until this past winter when the new metal labeled wines were released, right on time before the next (and final) season airs.
If you remember, I reviewed the mock “2386 Chateau Picard” wine before Season 1. This mock wine was actually a real wine (Vintage 2017) from the real Chateau Picard located in Saint-Estèphe, Bordeaux just relabeled as if they from the future. I had also included a bottle of normal (real) Chateau Picard wine I had purchased from K&L Wines here in Los Angeles as well as a wine from Sunstone Winery, the stand-in winery currently used for filming for the series.
The latest release is labeled “2401 Chateau Picard” but is actually a 2019 also from the real winery. My guess is that it is being pulled from the same lots as the previous vintage, as its taste profile is quite similar with high levels of tannins, medium high acids, and lots of dark berries.
Most novelty wines labeled with celebrities, movies, and TV shows are typically overpriced and taste cheap like they just came from the bulk wine leftover markets. Thankfully these wines do standout from those quality wise, but the $70 price tag is still a bit high. You are truly paying for the novelty aspect, but at least the metal labels are extravagant!
They do also have a bottle labeled “2221 Chateau Picard” which more or less is the sequel wine to the Picard Season 1 version. I’m pretty sure the internal wine itself is the same vintage as the 2401 yet just with a normal sticker label and costs $60 per bottle like the previous Chateau Picard 2386. This 2221 bottle was served at a private dinner party by Captain Pike on the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds set nearly two hundreds years before the Picard series.
I am looking forward to watching the TNG group get back together one last time, and will try to hold back the tears as much as possible. Who’s cutting onions man?
They say a vintner’s history is in every glass. The soil he came from, his past, hopes for the future. So, to the future…, Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Live Long and Prosper
