Suzanne Little
WINEMAKER AT THE LITTLE WINE CO.
“2025 marks twenty-five years of The Little Wine Company, which is something we are both very proud of.”
When did you realise you wanted to become a winemaker?
When I was sixteen, my cousin Jan came to visit and at the time she was a winemaker at Wynn’s in Coonawarra. I thought she was dead cool, so I decided to be a winemaker too.
Please tell us about your career so far, including your education, work experience, etc.
When I left school, I wanted to do a gap year before starting my wine science degree. I moved to Connawarra when I was seventeen, but I soon got sidetracked onto other things including travelling, working in the Sydney Futures Exchange and later serving as a trainee Bonds dealer. My interest in the money markets led me to complete a degree in economics at the Australian National University. However, the wine industry lured me back and I started working at Lark Hill in Canberra before moving to the Hunter Valley.
I started doing my wine science degree while working as an assistant winemaker at Reynolds Yarraman in the Upper Hunter. After two years at Reynolds, I joined the winemaking team at Rosemount Estate, ultimately becoming one of the senior winemakers there. While I was at Rosemount, I worked with fruit from some of the best vineyards in Australia including Balmoral shiraz and Roxburgh chardonnay.
In 2000 after our second child Caitlin came along, I left Rosemount to join forces with my winemaking husband, Ian Little, to establish The Little Wine Company. In a moment of madness, I went back to university and completed a law degree. I worked as a solicitor for a couple of years for a local law firm but just found it was too much to juggle that, running two wine businesses and making wine!
What do you love most about being a winemaker?
Vintage – I love it. It’s the best excuse ever to tune out to all the other demands and just get on with the job of making wine. It’s the simple pleasure of a singular focus and plain old physical hard work.
What is your favourite wine, and what food do you typically pair it with?
There are wines that I love to make and wines I love to drink. They are not always the same. We don’t make chardonnay but it holds a special place in my heart because I worked with it at Rosemount. I love seeing what specialist winemakers do with it because chardonnay has so many personas, it’s impossible to get tired of it. In terms of producing wine, I think sangiovese is my favourite because it’s not easy!
Is there a specific process you follow when developing a new wine?
Here in the Hunter Valley, we have pioneered quite a few alternative varieties, but for wines such as vermentino, pecorino, sangiovese and barbera there has been no ‘blueprint’ to follow. So, with the first vintage, we always play it with a very straight bat so that we can see what the fruit is trying to express. Once we get an idea of what we are dealing with then we start to add our winemaking stamp to it.
Is there any vintage you’re particularly proud of creating? Why?
Our 2019 Little Gem Sangiovese is probably the wine I am most proud of. It was the third in a trio of drought years and the fruit was exceptional.
How does the local climate/soil affect the wine you make?
The climate and soil of the Hunter Valley vary a lot more than you think, which is why we sold out of our vineyard in Pokolbin. The chances of one parcel of land being able to grow all the varieties we want to make is pretty much zero. We now take different varieties from different vineyards, and we find that works better for us.
Which of your own varieties do you typically indulge in?
When we clock off and enjoy a glass of wine we tend to gravitate toward varieties we don’t produce such as chardonnay, riesling and pinot noir. That way, it feels less like we’re at work.
Where do you see yourself in five years? How do you think your winemaking will evolve during this time?
We are currently in the process of succession planning. Our son Jeremy is also a winemaker who has worked at several different wineries around Australia and France, but he has never worked with us. He would eventually like to come home and take over the business, so perhaps in five years he will be taking over the winemaking reins and I’ll be off running around the mountains somewhere.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
2025 marks twenty-five years of The Little Wine Company and we are now certified by Sustainable Winegrowing Australia which is something we are very proud of. When we started The Little Wine Company, we knew we wanted to forge a new path with varieties that are suited to our climate. Seeing how much people love them today is one of the most rewarding parts of our journey.