I’ve had this discussion before with other folks and the covenant model makes a lot more sense than other claims I’ve heard (“Chateau Picard is actually public property but they just live there and work the land”).

I’m not sure what evidence there is on screen for privileges given up though. Captain Picard seems to be extremely privileged anyway as the captain of Star Fleet’s flagship Enterprise, despite the fact that his previous command of the starship StarGazer oversaw the loss of the entire ship.

It’s especially puzzling given the rather extreme rigours we see Wesley Crusher go through in order to gain admission to Star Fleet Academy. Perhaps Star Fleet is only tough on recruits but gives a ton of leeway to its captains.

I suspect if there’s any covenant at all, the simplest one makes sense: the Picard family may continue to keep their wine estate as long as they continue operating it and producing the wine (which they can’t really sell in a society without money). Perhaps most of the wine they produce is distributed to the public (on a waiting list) so that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy it.

The situation may also be temporary given the fact that Picard’s brother and nephew died tragically and Picard has no children of his own so there would be no one to inherit from him. At that point the Federation government would take control of the estate unless Picard had some sort of will (possibly to place it in trust and continue to operate it the way his family had).

“Something is wrong with my th keys and I don’t have any money” would have been ok, but you nailed it with “irrationally angry”