Aug 25, 2026 · 19 min · 10 segments
In 1993, a working actor planted five acres of pinot noir at the bottom of the world, in a region most people said was too cold to grow anything serious. His neighbors thought it was ahobby. Sam…
Jon FrutkinHost
[upbeat music] It's planting season 1993, and at the bottom of the world, planting season means spring arrives in September.
The highest grossing film in the history of movies, Jurassic Park, it's playing on every screen on Earth, and its star, the man who just outru- ran a Tyrannosaurus rex in front of a billion people, he's standing in a cold, windblown paddock in New Zealand, putting grapevines into the dirt.
Mountain wind that comes down the gorge like it's got a grudge, and this man, who at that exact moment could have had any script, any franchise, any life he wanted, he is on his knees in the gravel planting Pinot Noir, the one grape on Earth famous for breaking hearts.
His neighbors, they thought it was a hobby, and the wine trade figured it was just a vanity project.
It was the beginning of a 33-year answer to a question mark most of us never get the chance to ask ourselves.
When you already have everything, what do you build? Sam Neill, he died last month, 78 years old, and this week I wanna talk to you about what he actually left behind because it wasn't the dinosaurs, and I do wanna talk about why, from Central Otago to a shell-cratered vineyard in southern Ukraine, planting a vine might be the most stubborn act of hope that a human being can commit.
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