Next Article South China Morning Post 1 February 2007 I am Sam, winemaker Actor Sam Neill is no ordinary celebrity vintner. He tells Susan Jung how his nose for Burgundy led to organic pinot noir and the happiest pot-bellied pigs in Otago. By Susan Jung THERE ARE PROBABLY three things you didn't know about the actor Sam Neill. The first is that he plays the ukulele. Yes, the man who acted as the evil Damien (in Omen III - the Final Conflict); the super secret agent (in Reilly, Ace of Spies) and paleontologist Alan Grant in the three Jurassic Park movies, plays the totally uncool, tiny wisp of a guitar that was popularised by entertainers such as Don Ho and Tiny Tim. 'I can't sing the falsetto [on Tiptoe Through the Tulips] but I can play the chords,' says Neill. Second, he also has a refreshingly down-to-earth website. If you log on to www.samneill.com, you won't find the expected filmography, photos of Neill in his many roles, or an unofficial online fanzine. The site, strangely enough, has nothing about Neill - the actor, but instead is identical to www.twopaddocks.com, the website devoted to news about Neill's Two Paddocks winery in Central Otago, New Zealand. (The site's 'TP blog' is written by Neill in the third person [he refers to himself as the Proprietor] and is laugh-out-loud funny.) And finally, Neill is in Hong Kong now, judging at his first wine show, WinPac (Wines of the Pacific Rim), where he's joining the likes of John Avery, MW (Master of Wine); Australian winemaker Peter Lehmann and Hong Kong judges Simon Tam and Debra Meiburg. | |
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