Sam Neill and the world's southernmost wine region
Sam Neill may be an international man of movies, but his heart belongs to New Zealand - and you can pinpoint the spot to three paddocks in the ruggedly beautiful region of Central Otago.
Deep in the South Island is where Neill and his family retreat to when he is not filming. But he has little time to sit back and soak up the scenery - the snow-laden peaks of the Remarkables and the serenity of Lake Wakatipu below Queenstown.
When he is not making films, Neill is back home pulling on dirt-smudged boots and working on his other career and passion - winemaking.
The vineyards that produce grapes for Neill's Two Paddocks label sit in the world's most southernmost wine growing region, at latitude 45 south. Two Paddocks specialises in pinot noir, the temperamental red wine grape which flourishes in Central Otago, where the summer days are longer and the winters are cool but dry.
Although Central Otago is one of the newest wine growing region amongst New Zealand's 13,000 hectares of vines, it is already making its mark on the world's wine stage. In a landscape steeped in mining history, pinot noir is the new gold.
Ten years ago, Neill and his old friend and colleague, Hollywood director Roger Donaldson (whose most recent film, 'The World’s Fastest Indian' was filmed in Invercargill and starred Sir Anthony Hopkins) began cultivating grapes on neighbouring blocks. Hence the name Two Paddocks.
While Neill's paddock was planted with pinot noir, Donaldson grew chardonnay. Now Donaldson has his own vineyard and produces a wine labeled Sleeping Dogs, named for the first Kiwi film Neill and Donaldson worked on together; the film which launched Neill's career.
Neill has since expanded his small family wine business to three vineyards, tucked in valleys guarded by towering columns of craggy rock.
The Two Paddocks label has become highly sought after, and not simply because of its famous owner. Neill describes his pinot noir as having 'lots of delicious fruit and with toasty, sometimes smoky, herby overtones'. The plaudits flow from the tongues of wine critics: silken, jazzy, bouncy, beguiling and brilliant.
'I wanted to produce a good pinot noir that would, at the very least, be enjoyed by my family and friends. Frankly, my friends will pretty much drink anything, so this didn't seem too hard,' Neill says.
'With each successive vintage, we have produced a pinot noir that has done us proud and is, to be frank, too good to be wasted on our friends.'
Neill makes the most of his spectacular surroundings - when he is not working, he enjoys skiing the slopes of Coronet Peak, which watches over his very first vines at Gibbston. But he is also well known as a passionate advocate for protecting this environment, especially around Queenstown, the jewel of New Zealand tourism and the world's adventure capital.
Neill was born in Northern Ireland but his family moved to New Zealand's southern city of Dunedin when he was three. He soon fell in love with the untouched landscape of 'Central'; with its dramatic far-flung horizons and big sky.
He collects artworks of the landscape by famed local artists, like Grahame Sydney, and is a trustee on the New Zealand National Parks and Conservation Foundation. 'It becomes increasingly clear to me how vital conservation in New Zealand is for our future, and how important our National Parks are in that future,' he says.
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