Taking a moment from American wine to savor one of the many lasting legacies of a generational actor and winemaker.
“T-Rex doesn’t want to be fed. He wants to hunt. Can’t just suppress 65 million years of gut instinct.”
— Dr. Alan Grant, ‘Jurassic Park’
Earlier this month, we received the news that Sam Neill had passed away from an illness. He was known to many by his several movie characters, including (likely mostly famously as) Dr. Alan Grant, a world-renowned paleontologist and visitor to the new “Jurassic Park.”
Though he was a favorite among horror movie fans, and was great in “The Hunt for Red October,” I was 12 when “Jurassic Park” was released in 1993. At the age when I should start leaving childish things behind, Dr. Grant showed me that you can carry a love of dinosaurs into adulthood. I could continue to mourn the loss of Little Foot’s mother in “The Land Before Time.”
After the news of his passing, I sought out to experience another of Sam Neill’s adventures: tasting one of the wines made from his remote New Zealand winery, Two Paddocks.
Sam Neill started Two Paddocks in 1993 in the central area of New Zealand’s southern island, with its first vintage coming out in 1997. We were happy to pick up a bottle of his 2023 Pinot Noir at Astor Wines & Spirits in New York City.
We had never tasted a red wine from New Zealand before, so there was an excitement around the tasting. This light wine was fragrant with black current and raisin scents. It had mild tannins, and the flavor was vibrant, as if the wine was expressing itself as much as possible in every sip. Mineral and dark red fruit flavors were very prominent.
It was a delicious wine, the last gift to us from Sam Neill. Let it be said, Sam Neill never made a bad movie or a bad wine.
United States of Wine 
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