Express Winemakers
Great Southern, Western Australia.
Available in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, ACT.
Don’t let the name ‘Express Winemakers’ make you believe that Ryan O’Meara does anything in a hurry. He’s definitely put in plenty of time and effort in the industry, learning the ropes at Forest Hill (the oldest cool climate winery in Western Australia), completing what he refers to as ‘an endless vintage around the world’, and then kicking off his solo experiment in an urban winery in an industrial quarter of Denmark. He established Express Winemakers in Great Southern in 2011 and has been there ever since.
The ‘Express’ in the name refers instead to expression, and Ryan’s unbiased mindset and loyalty towards the region has allowed for the operation’s seamless evolution. His wines are simply bottled personalities of the cool subregions of Frankland River, Mount Barker and Porongurup. We adore his Trappers Gully Chenin and his beautifully fragrant and savoury Syrah, but the winery also holds renown for all kinds of envelope-pushing, with quirky, creative blends and off-the charts experiments as well as these focussed single-site offerings.
O’Meara leases and manages all sites, a portfolio of sources that is on the move as much as he is. Organic practices are upheld and all fruit is hand-picked and crushed by foot. Whole-bunches are mostly employed. Fermentation is natural, ageing occurs in neutral vessels (including old oak and stainless steel) and all wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered. O’Meara’s aim of minimal intervention and environmental impact provides us with pure-fruited wines that express a clear sense of place.
Wine
Drinking Wine
Variety
Grenache, Mouvedre, Malbec, Pinot Noir
Terroir
Granite derived gravels and sands
Vineyard
Various Great Southern and Margaret River vineyards
Viticulture
Organic, natural farming (not certified)
Winemaking
Fruit is picked bright and early to retain natural acidity, fermented by native yeast on skins for an average of about three to four days. Pressed to a combination of old oak and stainless steel. It is blended together in the Spring before a small addition of SO2 prior to bottling unfined and unfiltered
L'Orange
Variety
Riesling, Semillon
Terroir
Gravel loam over ferricrete. Gentle north facing slope, altitude 200m, vine age 20 – 40 years.
Vineyard
Clos Du Tertre, Frankland River
Viticulture
Organic, naturally farmed (not certified)
Winemaking
Hand-picked fruit is destemmed to picking bins for wild fermentation. After approximately eight days it is pressed to a combination of stainless steel, concrete and old oak for a short elevage before bottling.
Great Southern Pinot Noir
Variety
Pinot Noir
Terroir
The 2024 season was a record breaking early season with warm and dry conditions prevailing.
Vineyard
Fruit taken from two vineyards, Island Mountain in Porongurup and Karri Coast in Denmark. Both characterised by fertile soils made up of decomposed granite and long cool growing seasons.
Winemaking
Hand-picked fruit from Porongurup and machine-harvested fruit from Denmark, comprised of clones 114, 115 and D5V12, was wild fermented in small batches. After approximately 10 days on skins it was basket pressed to a combination of old oak and slightly newer large format oak, where it spent the next 12 months before blending, coarse filtration and bottling.
Franklandia Riesling
Variety
Riesling
Terroir
45 year old dry-grown Riesling vines planted on ironstone gravel
Vineyard
Franklandia, Great Southern
Winemaking
Hand-picked in two separate batches, picked a week apart. Both wild fermented separately in small stainless steel vessels for a long cool ferment. Both wines were left on lees for six months, providing ample texture, before blending, filtration and bottling.
Syrah
Variety
Syrah
Terroir
Gravely loam. Gentle east facing slope, altitude 200m, vine age 25 years.
Vineyard
Trappers Gully, Mount Barker
Viticulture
Organic, naturally farmed (not certified)
Winemaking
Hand-picked and foot stomped Syrah left on skins for 7 – 10 days to ferment naturally before being pressed to old oak barriques and newer puncheons. Racked in the Spring and a small amount of SO2 is added before bottling unfined and unfiltered.
Pinot Noir
Variety
Pinot Noir
Terroir
Sandy loam. Gentle north facing slope, altitude 100m , vine age 20 years.
Vineyard
Oranje Tractor Vineyard, Albany and Toolbrunup Vineyard, Porongurup
Viticulture
Organic
Winemaking
Pinot Noir hand-picked picked bright and early before being foot stomped and pressed off after 6 -7 days to finish ferment in old oak barriques. Racked off solids in the Spring and a small addition of SO2 before bottling unfined and unfiltered.
Chenin
Variety
Chenin Blanc
Terroir
Gravel Loam. North east facing slope, altitude 200m, vine age 25 years.
Vineyard
Trappers Gully, Mount Barker
Viticulture
Organic, naturally farmed (not certified)
Winemaking
Hand picked and basket pressed directly to a combination of old barrels and larger format oak where it ferments naturally and spends the next 10 months untopped a small addition of SO2 is made before bottling unfined and unfiltered.
Island Mountain Pinot Noir
Variety
Pinot Noir
Terroir
At 300m above sea level, this is as high as vineyards get in Western Australia. Planted to various clones of Pinot Noir as well as Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc in 2000. The soil is of decomposed granite.
Winemaking
Hand picked fruit was destemmed into picking bins where wild fermentation took place. After approximately 10 days it was basket pressed to a combination of old oak and less old oak for 12 months.
Franklandia Malbec
Variety
Malbec
Terroir
Frankland has the most continental climate of the Great Southern’s five sub-regions with growing seasons marked by warm days followed by cold nights.
Winemaking
The fruit was harvested by hand before being destemmed into picking bins where it was fermented by wild yeast. It was basket pressed to old oak after 12 days.
Orders
For all order enquiries please get in touch.