Go Behind the Scenes Of Wines That Rock's Star Trek Collection

With its 2021 release of both Andorian Blue Premium Chardonnay and Cardassian Kanar Red Wine Blend bottles, the team at Star Trek Wines has continued its mission to raise the bar and to boldly go where no wine company has gone before. Since launching in 2019, Star Trek Wines has released two official new wines each year. Why just two wines per year? “It takes us a full year to do the research, planning, and design for these special bottles, not to mention the effort that has been put into the actual juice in the bottle” says Heather Hudson, COO of Wines That Rock, the company behind Star Trek Wines.

Star Trek Wines inaugural launch included an original design for its United Federation of Planets wine, a sleek futuristic bottle with a Premium Old Vine Zinfandel and the long sought-after Chateau Picard Grand Cru Bordeaux. Convincing the actual 5th generation Chateau Picard vineyard located in the Saint-Estèphe region of France to put Jean-Luc Picard’s family label on its world-class and highly regarded Cru Bourgeois Bordeaux was no small feat, but the Star Trek Wine team wanted there to be no doubt about its commitment to authenticity and quality. While presenting its first two wines at the Star Trek Convention in 2019, the wine team was inspired by comments from several fans, as well as a couple of Klingon Warriors.  The next 2 releases were set, including a new United Federation of Planets Sauvignon Blanc and a of course - Klingon Bloodwine. Working together with the Klingon Language Institute (KLI), the creative team at CBS and a dedicated team of award-winning wine makers – the ritual Klingon Bloodwine was crafted with a bold Cabernet Sauvignon and features Klingon Warrior uniform patterns embedded into the bottle as well as a bold red hand-wax dipped finish. Emblazoned on the front of the bottle – the Klingon Proverb “Drink Now for Tomorrow We May Die” – in the original Klingon of course. As a hidden easter egg to fans, Star Trek Wines created four unique corks with four unique Klingon Proverbs.

“We really got into this one. Working with the KLI and several other Klingon experts, the whole team got drawn into Mythology of the Klingon Culture; Honor, Duty and Tradition!” said Spencer Brewer, Head of Special Projects for Wine That Rock. “How into it you ask – we actually put out our Press Release in full Klingon! Batlh YItlhuhtlh! Qapla!"

With four bottles in its original collection, the team began to seek out inspiration for the next two releases for 2021. Adding to the United Federation of Planets series, it was decided to do something completely different. Something Blue…

Star Trek Wines 2021 Andorian Blue Premium Chardonnay features one-of-a-kind numbered bottles, but only on the first 2,161 bottles, a nod to the Star Date the Federation was formed and ratified by representatives from Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, and Tellar. In addition to the numbered bottles, Andorian Blue features an elegant silk screen design and a special United Federation of Planets metal medallion affixed to the front of the bottle. Dating back to Star Trek: The Original Series, blue spirits have long played a role in the Star Trek universe. The Andorian Blue Chardonnay, a premium Chardonnay from Santa Lucia Highlands, has a stellar blue color that pays homage to the colorful history of Star Trek spirits. Working together with a PHD food scientist, Star Trek wines began the process adding a touch of blue color to this delicious wine, aged 12 months prior to bottling, the Andorian Blue Chardonnay has notes of citrus, peach, and apricots. The sleek bottle design, coupled with the blue wine and metal medallion make for a stunning presentation, worthy of any bar in the universe.

For the 6th wine in the collection – Star Trek Wines wanted a showstopper! With a lot of research and digging into the Star Trek Universe, it was Deep Space Nine’s Cardassian Kanar bottle that really resonated with the team. And so, the quest to get their hands on one of the most coveted bottles ever used on the Star Trek series began.  But this bottle proved to be elusive and difficult to locate – which added its own mystique to the bottle.  After an exhaustive multiyear search, it was discovered that the actual bottle had not been manufactured since the mid-70’s. The solution? Star Trek Wines decided to re-engineer the bottle using the original show prop from Deep Space Nine and re-create it with 3D rendering technology. In partnership with CBS archives and the Star Trek team, the original show bottle and ornamental bottle topper were scanned and modeled utilizing 3D technology – generating a perfect clone from which to forge the 2021 Kanar.  “We’ve never forged our own bottle before” said Wines That Rock Head of Innovation Craig Spurrier. “Once we got our hands on the original bottle, our entire team fell in love with it. It's quintessential Star Trek so we decided to go for it. The result is truly amazing. Nobody has held this bottle in their hands and not said WOW!”

With bottle in hand, the next step was working with the team at Star Trek to get the original label and necker design. With the Kanar fully designed and freshly forged, it was time to bring in Award Winning Wine Maker Andrew Nelson, named “40 under 40 Tastemaker” by Wine Enthusiast as well as 2021 Industry Leader by Wine Business Monthly. Working together with Nelson, Star Trek Wines put together a delicious premium Red Wine Blend worthy of this one-of-a-kind bottle. To top it all off, a standard cork did not seem fitting for this bottle, so Cardassian Kanar comes with both the ornamental headpiece as seen in the original shows (also rendered in 3D) as well as a futuristic glass seal with the Cardassian symbol glowing from the top. The icing on the cake: Dr. Una McCormack, New York Times bestselling science fiction author known for her work with Star Trek, was kind enough to write the original liner notes.  All in all – perhaps one of the coolest and most interesting bottles of wine in the galaxy!

Star Trek fans can purchase “The Full Armada” a collection of all six-wines brought together for the first time ever at StarTrekwines.com. Each 6 Pack Includes: