Every Tuesday evening OpenWine on Wale Street offers a wine tasting for roughly fifteen wine lovers, led by a representative of one of the wine estates stocked at the central wine tasting centre in Cape Town. Last night it was Oneiric from Elgin, the tasting led by its new representative Khail van Niekerk. 

Shan Pascall, daughter of the Oneiric owner, also attended, and welcomed us to the tasting. She shared that her father bought the Elgin farm in 2007, not farming with grapes initially. What makes the Oneiric wines so special is their distinctive labels and variant names, inspired by copper derivatives and sulphites, which create the ‘stand-out’ metallic look. The labels incorporate copper oxide/malachite, chalcopyrite, azurite, cuprite, and chalcocite. 

Oneiric means ‘to dream‘. Shan told me that their second label Oh!, with a Chardonnay and a Shiraz, will soon be phased out, to allow them to focus on their six Oneiric wines in The Copper Collection 

range (Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cousin Jack, Shiraz, Merlot, and Cabernet), as well as the three wines in The Collectables range (First Quantum Grand Reserve 2011, Oneiric Limited Release Shiraz 2009, and Oneiric Cabernet Sauvignon 2009).

Khail van Niekerk is a strong confident presenter, and handled the presentation with ease, despite his official starting date being today. He has previously worked at Creation, and at Longridge.

We tasted the following wines:

1. Oneiric Sauvignon Blanc 2013

Khail said that it is rare to find older white wines such as this one. He described the Sauvignon Blanc as ‘beautiful and fresh‘, the wine having mellowed in the bottle.  It has richness, complexity, and concentration, and is a ‘Cool Climate’ Sauvignon Blanc, he said. The grapes ripen more slowly, and therefore the fruit characteristics of the wine come through. The flavour accumulates in the grapes. Khail said that Oneiric is one of the highest wine farms in Elgin. In tasting the wine, we got pineapple, winter melon, and a whiff of asparagus. Minerality, and especially flintstone, came to the fore, making it a soft, rounded, and ‘beautiful wine’. The pH of the wine is very low, at 3,25.

2.   Oh!  Chardonnay 2011

We tasted two Chardonnays, the Oh! one being very light in colour, and not yellow as one would expect from a Chardonnay. The wine spent only three months in oak, and only in old oak. The wine spent six months on the lees. The bottle has a screw cap, to develop the wine more slowly, and creating less oxidation. 

The wine has natural acidity, with stone fruit on the nose.  Butter and butter scotch came through in the tasting. Shan said the wine is good as a welcome drink. They take special trouble to encourage tasters to try the Oh! Chardonnay, to get them over their anti-Chardonnay feelings. Khail said that there is a backlash against buttery Chardonnays, with an increasing number of unwooded Chardonnays being made. 

Both the Oneiric Sauvignon Blanc and Oh! Chardonnay won a Hong Kong Double Gold in 2016. 

3. Oneiric Chardonnay 2013

The Oneiric Chardonnay has a most attractive gold-coloured label. The wine spent eight months in barrels, 70% being new oak. The oak effect is very subtle, making the wine very balanced. 

4.   Oh! Shiraz 2012

The wine spent three months in French oak, Khail emphasizing that it is NOT new oak. The Shiraz is big and spicy, with coriander, nutmeg, cloves, violets, and white pepper. 

5.  Oneiric Cousin Jack 2010

This was the oldest wine which we tasted, being a blend of 48% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 10% Shiraz. The wine is bottle-aged. The wine was described as an ‘anytime wine’, not needing to be paired with food.

6.  Oneiric Shiraz 2011

This wine was matured in 100% new French oak. The spice notes are more subtle, with juniper, and more pepper coming through, in a Northern Rhone style.

Shan encouraged those present to visit Elgin, a wine region with 18 wineries. 

Oneiric, Elgin. Cell 071 481 9560. www.oneiric.co.za  Twitter:@oneiricwines Instagram: @oneiric_wines. 

OpenWine, 72 Wale Street, Cape Town. Tel (021) 422-0800. www.openwine.co.za Twitter: @OpenWineZA Instagram: @openwine_za

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: click here Instagram: @Chris_Ulmenstein