Thousands of dollars’ worth of donations also flood in to charity that Neill joined in protest against a controversial mine near his vineyard‘He made wine and he shared it. What more do you want?’: Sam Neill remembered by his co-starsNew Zealand stores have been selling out of Sam Neill’s wine
Eva Corlett in Wellington
New Zealand stores have been selling out of Sam Neill’s wine label, and the causes he held dear have had an influx of support, as fans find ways to pay tribute to the adored late actor.
The 78-year-old New Zealander died on 13 July of pneumonia, just three months after Neill revealed he was finally cancer-free since being diagnosed with stage three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, in 2022.
Neill’s representative, Philip Grenz, suggested to fans wanting to honour Neill’s memory they make donations to “one of the causes he cared about most deeply” instead of sending flowers to the family.
Neill was an avid winemaker, producing pinot noir, riesling and rosé under his label Two Paddocks, in Central Otago, New Zealand. He was known to be generous with his wine, donating it to charity events and giving it to friends and colleagues. Now, fans are raising a glass of Two Paddocks in his memory.
Liquorland, a national retailer with 175 stores, said Two Paddocks pinot noir went from being the 423rd bestselling wine the week prior to Neill’s death to number five in the days after news broke – representing a 1,828% increase in its sales.
Regional Wines, a boutique store in Wellington, sold out of stock the day he died, while Moore Wilson’s, a boutique supermarket and wholesaler in Wellington, sold five times the usual volume of Two Paddocks.
“Customers have shared plans to enjoy Sir Sam Neill’s movies with a glass of his pinot noir,” said Amanda Thompson, Moore Wilson’s general manager. “Others are stocking up the cellar, and some of the cafes and restaurants were putting up a blackboard special to celebrate his life.”
Two Paddocks’ general manager Jacqui Murphy told the Guardian Neill would have been touched. To Neill, sitting around a table with friends and family and a glass of great wine was a “sign of living well”, she said.
“I’m sure he would regret the reason they needed to do this, but he talked about wine being about conviviality, connecting people,” she said. “So I think he would think it was very apt, and he’d be even more excited that they were, of course, drinking his Two Paddocks.”
Dean McHenry, the general manager of Two Paddocks distributor, Negociants New Zealand, said the brand had always been popular but there had been an upswing in demand over the past week. “I just think it shows what he meant to us as a nation at the bottom of the world,” he said.
An anti-mining group called Sustainable Tarras received a sudden bump of more than NZ$20,000 (£8,700) in donations after the news about Neill emerged. Neill joined the group’s fight to stop a controversial open-cast goldmine being developed in the Dunstan mountains, a few kilometres from his vineyard in Central Otago, saying the mine would “be the end” for the region.
Fans are now vowing to keep up the fight. “In honour of the great Sam Neill and for everyone against this ugly idea,” wrote one person who donated to the group.
“For Sam. We will carry on fighting in your name,” wrote another.
One fan in Scotland said: “Donating in memory of Sam Neill, a man of integrity and honour who would want you to continue the fight against this appalling assault on such a wonderful landscape.”
The chair of Sustainable Tarras, Suze Keith, said Neill was a “knight in shining armour” whose championing of the cause allowed the group to better fight the proposal by bringing in experts.
However, the support Neill’s fans showed after his death had been “bittersweet”.
“It’s just so tragic to have lost him … It’s so encouraging so many people have come out to say: ‘keep it up, keep up these efforts, let us help you keep up these efforts’. It is really quite a remarkable thing,” Keith said.
Dunstan Hospital Foundation in Central Otago, where Neill received cancer treatment, also received dozens of individual donations from around the world.
“These have included some special, heartfelt messages of how important Sir Sam was to them and how important this hospital is,” said Hayley Anderson, the chief executive.
