Little Frances Luchsinger Vineyard Semillon Lake County 2017

Erin Pooley is the proprietress and uber-talented winemaker behind Little Frances wines- a portfolio that includes both California offerings and wines from her native Australia. Frances is Erin’s middle name, and after a recent spirited phone conversation from her home in Sydney where she’s gearing up for harvest Down Under, she may be little in stature but is clearly big in personality. Erin earned her degree in Wine Science from Charles Sturt University and first came to California in 2007 with a dream and a J-1 visa. She spent several vintages working early mornings on the cellar floor at Napa’s iconic Larkmead Cellars, supplementing her income as a captain on the dining room floor of the Michelin-starred Meadowood Restaurant at night. That’s a lot of time on your feet! So, later on, when a different upscale restaurant employer closed its doors in 2012, Erin parlayed her severance check into her first ton of fruit to start her own wine label; and Little Frances wines was born. 

Erin loves fresh and vibrant wines, which naturally inclined her to make white wines like Sémillon and Chenin Blanc. Her wines have garnered a constant drumbeat of praise- Esther Mobley from the San Francisco Chronicle named her a Winemaker to Watch in 2018. And influential critic and celebrated wine writer Jon Bonné mentioned Erin in an article on the future direction of Californian wine. He later listed her as part of “California’s New New Guard” of winemakers.

When the words wine and Australian are used in the same sentence, they are usually in reference to bold, full-bodied Shiraz. However, the other iconic grape on the continent is Semillon- used to craft age-worthy whites in the Hunter Valley region a little west of Sydney in New South Wales. So, when Erin got wind of a small amount of Semillon available from the sustainably farmed Luchsinger Vineyard in Lake County, just north of Calistoga, she jumped at the opportunity. Fermentation took place in stainless steel tanks with native yeast and the wine was bottled with minimal sulfites after six months on fine lees. It has been intentionally aged in bottle since March 2018- aided by the naturally high acidity in Semillon. The 2017 Little Frances Semillon is pale straw in color with an aromatic profile of lime leaf and dried hay. On the palate, a hint of an early season peach fruit gives way to a generous lemon citrus finish. Don’t be afraid to explore a range of serving temperatures or styles of food with this refreshingly dry and complex wine. Erin proves that good things come in small packages, and this Semillon is evidence that good things come to those who wait.