Sam Niell

With the new Jurassic Park coming in this new 2015 year “Jurassik World” we choose to focus this week on Sam Niell, owner of several beautiful vineyards in his sweet home land: New Zealand.

Indeed, since 1993, Sam Neill has been making wine on his Two Paddocks winery in New Zealand’s South Island.

All start in 1993, at Sam Niell original family vineyards at Gibbston, Central Otago in the deep south of New Zealand. There, just after Jurassik Park (1993) he starts with modest ambition, to manage the 2,5 ha “Two Paddocks” Pinot vineyards. With a first vintage 100% Pinot in 1997.

In 1998 he acquired Alex Paddocks, a 3 ha vineyard on a very beautiful terrace perched above the Clutha River and located near Alexandra. Huge landscape guarantee !!

Then the vintages coming, and the good reputation with it, he acquired the 53ha farm Redbank in the Earnscleugh Valley which became the main vineyard and business headquarters. And where they also grow cherries, nectarines, saffron, lavender, truffles vegetables, sheep, cumquats, walnuts, olives…

A true “Jurassik Park” background ! Scary.

But Sam Niell is not only known as the « Jurassic Park » star. He is also Pinot Noir obsessed, and has won many awards for his Two Paddock Pinot Noir wines.

Finally in January 2014 Two Paddocks vineyards acquired their fourth vineyard, “Desert Heart” this one in Bannockburn.

Sam Neill says “We’ve been quietly looking around for something good in this neck of the woods for quite a while now and we were very fortunate that the opportunity came up of buying a small vineyard that we’ve always admired – Desert Heart.”

About Sam Niell’s actuality !

He just finish an Australian supernatural thriller Backtrack with Adrien Brody and one of this future project is filming the second series of the BBC’s historic crime drama Peaky Blinders, in which he plays a psychotic police inspector.

We wish him good luck for this new project, and hope that he will still have enough time to visit his several vineyards and help his winemakers to create the perfect New Zealand Pinot Noir he is dreaming for !