Two Paddocks Picnic Riesling 2019.

Featuring the Proprietor’s Grandfather, Sydney Neill – Wine Merchant, on the label, Picnic Riesling is our perennial favourite and a wonderful introduction to the pleasure of Central Otago Riesling.

We think it is just as much a dinner wine as a luncheon – equally enjoyable at home outdoors as at the Captain’s Table.

Vintage Comment: Smallish crops on healthy vines gave us gorgeous aromatics and drive. The wines appear more elegant than the 2010’s but have a feminine feel and freshness about them.

Winemaker’s Notes: Crushed rose petal, spicy ginger, and lime aromatics. Followed by a focused, mineral-driven palate with strength and an energetic finish. A lively and varietal wine that drinks well immediately but has the potential to age elegantly over the next 3-5 years.

Vineyard: Two Paddocks, Central Otago, New Zealand.

750ml.

12% Vol.

The actor/winemaker talks about terroir and terriers, sheep and sheepishness, Oscars,k and wine scores.

Actor and winemaker Sam Neill looks stricken. If he simply had to choose between 99 points from Wine Spectator or an Oscar, which would it be, he was asked. "Do I have to choose? oh my God! Can I take both? Please?

He recoups. "I'll just take a little flattery. That'll do me" he says, more in character with his reserved, gee-shucks manner.

Neill's acting career -- his filmography lists 96 movie and TV roles, including The Piano, Jurassic Park and The Hunt for Red October -- is clearly his day job. But his 17-year-old New Zealand winery is not simply a vacant project, and he's in town to promote Two Paddocks Winery at the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival.