‘Jurassic’ Sam Neill raises a glass for Cork wine seller

Sam Neill, the Tyrone-born, New Zealand-raised actor of Jurassic Park fame, did his bit last week to boost the profile of a small Irish wine business. But why?

Curiouswines.ie is a Cork-based online wine retailer run by businessman Mike Kane. He did an interview recently with Thinkbusiness.ie, a new advice-driven portal for smaller businesses. Thinkbusiness is "powered" by Bank of Ireland, which presumably picks up the tab for the rather cool resource.

Kane’s interview was promptly tweeted by Neill to his 74,000 followers. “If business is your business, then this business advice might be just the business for your business,” said the actor, by way of an introduction to the link.

Neill's tweet was soon retweeted by plenty more tweeps, including a Pat Farrell, presumably the same chap as the bank's group head of communications.

While the exposure was surely welcome, it all seemed a bit random – a Hollywood actor plugging a Bandon wine merchant.

We checked if his tweet was a paid endorsement. Apparently not.

Neill is a bit of a wine aficionado himself – his avatar picture of him balancing two bottles on his head is a clue – while he also owns a vineyard in New Zealand called Two Paddocks.

It turns out Kane’s company sells a couple of Neill’s wines, a Two Paddocks riesling and a pinot noir. Kiwi pinots are among the world’s best of that variety.

It is 60 years since Neill left this island, but there’s another Irish homage on his winery’s website:

“We broke the bread, we drank the wine/Everybody… having a good time.”

Those are lyrics from the U2 song Until the End of the World, which appeared on the soundtrack of a 1991 film of the same name, starring Neill. Nice touch.