Lukas Finn

Lukas was born in Subiaco, Western Australia. Like many Aussies, his childhood revolved around the water and sailing on the Swan River. He attended John X111, a private catholic school until his high school years. Lukas begged his parents to let him attend public school, and their compromise came to an agricultural boarding school called Harvey Ag College. Harvey Ag is where Lukas found viticulture, and after a single internship, Lukas knew this was what he wanted to do. After graduating from Harvey Ag College in 1997, Lukas did a short stint at the local college to realize he did not want to be there, so he went to work!

In the summer of 1998, Lukas worked his first paid vintage at a winery called Evans & Tate, or more commonly known as E&T, in the Swan Valley. After that vintage, he was hooked and worked in the Swan Valley for five more years with a small family-owned company doing both vineyard and winery work. 

In 2002, Lukas did a vintage at Houghton’s in Nannup, WA, about 2 hours south of Perth, which is the largest winery in Western Australia.  In the winter of 2002, he planted a 35-acre vineyard for his Aunt in Dardanup, which included varieties such as shiraz, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, and Durif. After spending a year at his Aunties house, he got a job at Wise Winery in Eagle Bay and moved to Dunsborough, WA. Lukas would spend the next five vintages at Wise, working in the winery and vineyard. 

In 2007, Lukas got recruited to work at a company called 3 Oceans Wine Co. near Margaret River by a former winemaker he worked with at Wise. He spent the next 9.5 years making award-winning wines at 3 Oceans, and during his time here, his life would change forever. 

In 2011, while happily working and enjoying his single life, Lukas’ mate begged him to house one of his harvest interns. A very reluctant Lukas finally agreed. At the beginning of February, he picked Nichole up from the bus stop, and within 2 weeks before she was due to go back to California, they fell in love. Two months later, Lukas found himself in California, a place he never thought of traveling too until he met Nichole. He met friends and family of his “Cali” girl and bought her a one-way ticket back to Australia to see what happens until her visa expires. Well, what happened was wedding bells. After they were married, they worked together for four years at 3 Oceans Wine Co. Every other year, they would come back to California to help her dad, Kevin, at Bella Luna. After working at such large wineries, Lukas fell in love with boutique wineries and the hands-on approach of winemaking. 

In 2016, on holiday in California for their daughters’ 1st birthday, Lukas and Nichole were approached by Sherm and Kevin that expanding the label was on the horizon, and they need all hands on deck. They didn’t hesitate, and they began the immigration process. A very grueling two years later, they made it over to America. 

In August 2018, Lukas started at Eberle Winery as assistant winemaker.  That year he had a new record, three harvests in one year!

January 2020, Bella Luna was ready for Lukas to start working with the team, and he is eager to add some Aussie influence to Bella Luna.  The final piece to the next generation puzzle is finally together!