La Depeche has reported that a Californian winemaker has created a range of wines to celebrate the release of the movie “Star Trek Into Darkness”. The three wines from Viansa Winery in Sonoma are a limited edition and are a special blend of Merlot, Sangiovese, Cabernet Franc, Dolcetto, Tinta Cao, and Tempranillo.
The wines are “The City on the Edge of Forever,” “Mirror Mirror,” and “The Trouble with Tribbles.” The labels were designed by artist Juan Ortiz, who was commissioned by CBS to create a collection of original prints for each episode of the original “Star Trek” series.
Bordeaux can go one step further. It is home to Chateau Picard. The real one. There are two . . . for those of you who are not Trekkies let me explain that in Star Trek: The Next Generation Chateau Picard was the fictional 24th Century red wine estate in La Barre, owned and operated by Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s brother.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard (played by Patrick Stewart) of the Star Ship Enterprise obviously had a penchant for claret (he had good taste!) and the wine was featured in several episodes and movies. Two bottles were sold at auction by Christies, New York in 2007 for $6600.00. These two bottles featured in the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis and were the fictional vintage 2267.
The real Chateau Picard lies in Saint Estephe and was classified a Cru Bourgeois in 1932. It was purchased by the negotiants Mahler Besse (part owners of Chateau Palmer) in 1997 and has benefited from investment, renovation and new wine making technology.
The chateau has long been considered one of the better wines of the appellation and the vineyards are planted with 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot, spanning 8 hectares. The soil is clayey but also contains fossilised cockleshells and sea urchins.
Sadly Captain James T Kirk, despite his love of alcoholic beverages, does not have a viticultural heritage and no wine from a ‘Chateau Kirk’ exists.
However over the years the crew of the Enterprise have enjoyed Saurian Brandy, Aldeberan Whiskey, Finagle’s Folly (McCoy’s cocktail mix), Cardassian Kanar, Mot’loch (Klingon), Romulan Ale, Warnog (Klingon Ale), Vulcan Ale, Synthehol and Klingon Blood Wine.
In real life the ‘original’ Captain Kirk, William Shatner, is married to Elizabeth Shatner who partnered with Elk Creek Vineyards in 2010 to bottle her own custom wine blend Faire Game and furnished the artwork for the label herself.
The ‘young’ Captain Kirk, Chris Pine, has no wine making aspirations (yet) but he did star as ‘Bo’ in the film Bottle Juice (oops, I mean Bottle Shock) based on the story of the wine competition ‘The Judgement of Paris’.
Beam me up Scotty!