With the third season of “Picard,” Terry Matalas experienced the fickle world of meme-ification. Notably, he wrote a scene where Captain Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick) was asked by Picard to help with a shady rescue operation … off the books. Captain Shaw, a practical, by-the-book character, merely responded with a “No.” That “No” wormed its way into the wild and hoary world of “Star Trek” memes, used in response to just about any question. Example: Tuvix yells “I want to live!” and Captain Shaw says “No.” Matalas admitted that he tries to write meme-able moments into his shows, but one can never predict the bizarre caprices of the internet.
Evidently, the “Château Picard is bad” notion also worked its way into the fandom, and Trekkies began idly having to disabuse some notions. ScreenRant devoted an article to the idea, and people on Reddit were shocked — shocked! — to hear that Picard’s wine was not good. Matalas didn’t mean to make Château Picard into the butt of online jokes, or turn Picard’s lifelong passion into a gag, but here we are. Matalas said:
“We ran a gag that Château Picard isn’t the best wine. It doesn’t taste the best. I didn’t think anybody would really pick up on it and people really, really picked up on it.”
Indeed, some curious souls decided to test the real-life Château Picard, and they found it to be … average. The Bordeaux, true to Geordi’s review, was indeed dry. The Sauvignon Blanc, however, had little to no flavor. I suppose when one is buying “Star Trek” wines, one is buying it for the bottle itself, and not for the contents. I suppose, thanks to Terry Matalas, Château Picard is now forever bad.