Where does Semillon come from?
Semillon is the third widely planted grape after Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay in France. This variety is also grown in countries such as South Africa, USA, Argentina, Chile, Portugal, Israel, and Australia (which is the second largest producer of this grape after France). Semillon's history is not definite.
Where does the Sémillon grape grow?
In France, the Sémillon grape is grown mostly in Bordeaux where it is blended with Sauvignon blanc and Muscadelle. When dry, it is referred to as Bordeaux blanc and is permitted to be made in the appellations of Pessac-Léognan, Graves, Entre-Deux-Mers and other less-renowned regions.
Can Semillon be made in China?
And perhaps most surprisingly, China is now producing wines made form Semillon. Once the most common white grape cultivated in South Africa, Semillon has largely fallen by the wayside in favor of Steen, or Chenin Blanc. Check out some of these beautiful wines made from Semillon from all over the world:
Where can you find Semillon wine in Australia?
Sémillon is also finding favour with Australian producers outside the Hunter Valley in the Barossa Valley and Margaret River regions. The Adelaide Hills is becoming a flourishing region for Semillon, with the cooler climate producing some wines of great complexity.
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Where is Semillon grown in Australia?
Hunter ValleySémillon is widely grown in Australia, particularly in the Hunter Valley north of Sydney, where for a long time it was known as "Hunter River Riesling".
What wines are made from Semillon?
Aside from Sauternes, Semillon is also one of the main ingredients in sweet wines like:Cadillac.Cerons.Barsac.Loupiac.Sainte-Crox-du-Mont.Premieres Côtes de Bordeaux.
What is Semillon called in France?
Sémillon (Semillon) Wine Characteristics Sémillon is commonly blended with Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle in White Bordeaux.
What grapes make up a Semillon?
It is an ingredient with Sauvignon Blanc, both major and minor, in both basic Bordeaux Blanc and the great, dry, oaked whites of Graves and Pessac-Léognan – indeed some would say wines such as Châteaux Haut-Brion Blanc and La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc (both containing substantial proportions of Semillon) express the ...
Is Sémillon aged in oak?
The many sides of semillon In the winery, it can be made crisp and clean in steel tanks, spend time in oak barrels, be blended with varieties like sauvignon blanc, or turned into textural, skin-contact styles. Many producers also age their semillon wines in bottle before release.
How long can you age Sémillon?
Sweet dessert wines that aren't fortified (e.g. botrytis Semillons, Late/ Autumn Harvest) – Semillon is an excellent variety for long-term ageing, expect to be able to put it away for up to 15 years. It will continue to develop intense honey flavours and turn a dark golden colour.
How is Sémillon pronounced?
0:010:07How to say it: Semillon - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipSemión se millón.MoreSemión se millón.
What do you eat with a Sémillon?
Food pairing Thanks to its zesty taste, Sémillon is best suited to spicy dishes like Indian curries and hot Asian food. Like most white wines, Sémillon is best enjoyed when paired with white meat and fish. Try pairing the wine with some chicken, pork, or duck. The wine is also often paired with sushi.
Is Sémillon like Sauvignon Blanc?
Sauvignon Blanc is definitely flashier than Sémillon. It has more intense fruit flavors, a more vivid acidity and a lighter body. Sémillon is heavier, with lower acidity and an appealing, almost oily or waxy quality to it.
Is Semillon sweet or dry?
Semillon is a yellow skinned white wine grape that was once one of the most cultivated wine grapes in the world. Now Semillon grapes are most commonly grown in Australia, France, and South Africa. Semillon wines are generally off dry and full bodied, with honey and citrus flavors.
What style of wine is semillon?
Semillon is a white variety from Bordeaux, which famously offers a unique flavour experience when produced in a handful of premium Australian regions; some Australian examples of Semillon are so good, their qualities are said to be unseen in the rest of the wine world!
Is Semillon high acid?
Sémillon is a grape with a modest content in acid and the alcohol level of its wines can be considered as medium-high. This characteristic is mainly found in warm climate areas in which is also added an appreciable structure.
What style of wine is Sémillon?
Semillon is a white variety from Bordeaux, which famously offers a unique flavour experience when produced in a handful of premium Australian regions; some Australian examples of Semillon are so good, their qualities are said to be unseen in the rest of the wine world!
Is Sémillon the same as Sauvignon Blanc?
Sauvignon Blanc is definitely flashier than Sémillon. It has more intense fruit flavors, a more vivid acidity and a lighter body. Sémillon is heavier, with lower acidity and an appealing, almost oily or waxy quality to it.
Is Sémillon similar to Sauvignon Blanc?
While Semillon can often be compared to (or even blended with) Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon is typically heavier, with lower acidity and an appealing, almost waxy or oil quality to each drop. The longer you age Semillon, the richer the wine will become.
Is Sémillon a Chardonnay?
Chardonnay – Semillon is a blend of two French grape varieties that are most often combined in Australia. Chardonnay, the great white grape of Burgundy, and Semillon, key in the sweet wines of Sauternes, are both well-traveled varieties, and both have been adopted enthusiastically by Australian vintners.
Origin
Sémillon originates from southwestern France, in particular from the Aquitaine region.
Aromas
Sémillon's range of aromas is less intense than that of Sauvignon Blanc, which it is often blended with. It frequently features notes of ripe pear, honey, acacia flower, and dried fruits, such as hazelnut.
Wines profile
Sémillon, in favorable growing conditions with adult vines and low yields, can make high quality dry white wines with a lot of body and low to moderate acid. These wines can be barrel-aged and can be kept for many years. Sémillon can of course be used to make sweet white wines of the finest quality.
Cultivation areas
Sémillon is grown in southwestern France, primarily in Aquitaine, in the Gironde and Dordogne départements (counties), where it is used to make dry, sweet and liqueur-like wines. It is also found in the middle Garonne Valley, up to Albi. Finally, it is also grown in southeastern France between Avignon, Aix and Marseille.
Precocity
Sémillon is a relatively late grape variety, budding 5 days after the benchmark variety, Chasselas, and reaching full ripeness 2 1/2 weeks after it. This makes Sémillon a Period II grape variety.
Vigor
Sémillon is a moderately vigorous, highly productive grape variety. Sémillon can be trained with moderately long pruning or short pruning. When planted in areas susceptible to springtime frosts, it is pruned longer in order to ensure good production. The productivity of this variety depends on the fertility of the land in which it is grown.
Soils
Sémillon seems to be well adapted to gravelly or clay-limestone soils. These soils give it an adequate water supply in dry periods as well as good water drainage. They also allow for proper ripening. Deep roots are a sign of quality, as they help to avoid gray mold, which Sémillon is highly susceptible to.
Where Does Semillon Come From?
This is far from the truth and far from the birthplace of this grape. The Semillon grape is native to Bordeaux, France. In the region of Graves, the famous Sauternes is produced using Semillon that has been infected with botrytis that helps to concentrate the sugar in the grape and results in an expensive dessert wine. The ideal climate of this region of France produces the perfect Semillon grapes that are needed for this wine. It enjoys long, hot summer days with cool breezes and humidity that come from being in the vicinity of the Garonne River.
Which country makes semillon?
China has surprised the wine world by starting to make Semillon wines.
What Kind of Wine Is Semillon?
Sémillon is a white wine grape variety from the Bordeaux region in France. Sémillon is primarily a blending grape, but it is also used in varietal wines and can be either sweet or dry.
What Is Semillon?
Common Semillon characteristics are simplicity and purity, especially when they are young. Depending on where the vineyards are situated, you can find some that are more full-bodied and fruitier, or with herbal hints. Typically Semillon wine has high levels of acidity and low alcohol content and that gives this white wine a unique penchant for longevity. So, being light and flavorsome, Semillon wine variety is easily matched with many food styles and tastes.
How to Pronounce Semillon?
They also put more emphasis on the first syllable as that is where the “seed” part of the meaning features. You can see this in the French spelling – Sémillon. The generally accepted Semillon pronunciation in English is sem-mee-yon.
How To Serve Semillon?
Because this white wine comes in different styles it is important to get the temperature to serve Semillon just right. For a dry, unoaked variety you should serve it at around 45 ºF (8 ºC).
How Much Alcohol Does Semillon have?
Semillon wines from warm regions tend to be less acidic and have 12% ABV, whereas more acidic Semillon with under 12% ABV is usually derived from cooler regions. It is rare to find a Semillon that exceeds the 12% alcohol level.
Semillon Sensory Characteristics
Semillon exhibits a range of sensory characteristics. The wine can be made dry to sweet, high to moderate acidity, and oaked or unoaked. The main influence on Semillon is the growing climate. Cool climate Semillon shows freshness, with citrus, lime, and grapefruit.
Semillon Wine Styles
Apart from its growing climate, Semillon displays different characteristics depending on whether it is vinified dry or sweet. Dry wines exhibit the flavor characteristics above, including apple, citrus, stone fruits, floral hints, and beeswax (or lanolin). Semillon plays a star role in some of the world’s most famous dessert wines.
Semillon Production Regions
Semillon acreage spans the globe, with vineyards dedicated to this grape found on every wine growing continent. Countries with acreage under vine, in order from the largest to smallest, are: France, Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, and the U.S.A. China also now has Semillon vines under production.
Semillon in France
Historically, Semillon hails from Bordeaux, where it makes up the largest variety grown by percentage in the famous white Bordeaux trio: Semillon (53%), Sauvignon Blanc (38%), and Muscadelle (6%). Within Bordeaux, Semillon grows in Graves, Entre-deux-Mers, Sauternes, Bourg, and Blaye.
Semillon in Australia
Australia is the second largest grower of Semillon, making both warm and cool climate styles. There are four styles of Semillon: unoaked single varietal, oaked single varietal, blended, and dessert. Hunter Valley is arguably the most well-known of the Semillon growing regions in Australia with a warm, humid climate.
Semillon in South Africa
Similar to Australia, South Africa produces Semillon in a range of styles. Brought to the region by French Huguenots in the late 1600s, Semillon was once the most widely planted grape in South Africa, accounting for over 90% of production (Pietersen, 2020).
Semillon in South America
Across the globe in South America, Argentina and Chile both have acreage dedicated to Semillon vines. In Argentina’s Uco Valley in the Mendoza province and in the Rio Negro province in Patagonia, Semillon enjoyed popularity in the 1970s. However, with growing consumer demand for Argentina’s signature Malbec, Semillon plantings declined.
Where does Semillon come from?
Semillon’s homeland is undoubtedly south-west France, not just Bordeaux but the many surrounding wine regions such as Bergerac (although here some of the finest producers of sweet white Monbazillac treasure the Muscadelle vine even more). It is an ingredient with Sauvignon Blanc, both major and minor, in both basic Bordeaux Blanc and the great, dry, oaked whites of Graves and Pessac-Léognan – indeed some would say wines such as Châteaux Haut-Brion Blanc and La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc (both containing substantial proportions of Semillon) express the grape at its very finest in a dry wine. These wines are immensely rich yet dry and can last for decades, taking on an extraordinary depth, density and lanolin smoothness with wonderfully lemony acidity, with age. Other fine dry white wines from the gravely soils south east of the city of Bordeaux can have a similar quality in good vintages although in some there is a tendency to oily oakiness, and not always with great age.
What is the name of the grape that is spelt as Semillon?
Semillon. Often spelt Sémillon, this is one of those grapes like Riesling which tends to be much more appreciated by wine insiders than by the average wine drinker.
Is Semillon a dry wine?
In many warmer wine regions Semillon with its naturally relatively low acidity can need the nerve and crispness provided by Sauvignon Blanc, but made well, dry Semillon can be an intriguing, full-bodied wine with a satisfying combination of citrus, honey and grassiness.
Is semillon hard to grow?
Semillon is not difficult to grow. In fact, unless its yield is decimated by botrytis, it is naturally quite productive, and its characteristic bright green leaves earned it the title ‘green grape’ for many years in South Africa where it was by far the most planted grape variety in the early 19th century – so much so that then it was actually just called ‘the wine grape’. It is now only the fifth most planted white wine grape but South Africa still producers a wide range of varietal dry Semillons as well some dessert wines. Some of the more admired exponents of dry varietal wines include Steenberg, Cape Point Vineyards and Landau du Val. It is increasingly found, though not always labelled, as a blending component with Sauvignon Blanc, and other varieties as in Vergelegen’s much garlanded blended white.
What is the taste of sémillon?
Sémillon Wine Taste. The primary fruit flavors in Sémillon wine are lemon, apple, pear and green papaya. There’s something very waxy about the taste of Sémillon which wine writers often describe as lanolin.
What is a sémillon blend?
Sémillon is commonly blended with Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle in White Bordeaux.
What is the alcohol level of a warm climate sémillon?
Warm climate regions include California, South Africa, Argentina and South Australia. Wines will have slightly higher alcohol around 12-14% ABV.
Is sémillon wine good?
It’s an important blending component in White Bordeaux and is also planted throughout Australia. In the US, Sémillon wines are usually a great price for their quality.
Around the World in 52 Grapes
Semillon is responsible for some of the world’s classic white wines – both dry and sweet. And yet no one really seems to drink them. Which is good news for us, because it means they’re some of the best values in the world of wine.
Where Semillon is grown
There are two benchmark regions for Semillon: the Hunter Valley and Bordeaux. And they couldn’t be more different. The Hunter Valley, located a couple of hours north of Sydney, Australia, is scorching hot. It almost defies logic that premium wine could be made here.
What Semillon tastes like
Semillon is a contradiction in so many ways. The subtropical climate of Hunter Valley gives us steely, citrus-laden wines with low alcohol and searing acidity thanks to early picking. They’re almost Chablis-like in their youth – and, frankly, a bit simple. But these are wines that really develop their character with years in bottle.
What to pair with Semillon
For Hunter Valley Semillon, there’s no question that you need shellfish. Oysters, clams on the half shell, raw scallops, chilled fresh crab – or all the above. For White Bordeaux, go for pan-seared scallops or delicately cooked white fishes in a butter sauce. Sauternes may be a great dessert on its own, but the classic pairing is roasted chicken.
How to pronounce Semillon
In French, a double ‘l’ is pronounced as a ‘y’. So, Semillon should be pronounced sem-e–yon. Unless you’re in Australia, and then all bets are off.
Where does semillon come from?
Originally hailing from Bordeaux, Semillon is springing up in more varied locations around the world. California and Washington States have increased plantings, and Australia produces some stunning dry versions of Semillon that are changing popular understanding of how the variety can be vinified. Historically, Semillon was limited ...
Which country produces semillon?
And perhaps most surprisingly, China is now producing wines made form Semillon. Once the most common white grape cultivated in South Africa, Semillon has largely fallen by the wayside in favor of Steen, or Chenin Blanc.
What is the best dish to serve with semillon?
Semillon also works well with highly seasoned dishes; think milder curries, autumnal spices, and high-toned herbs like sage and fennel.
What is sweet Bordeaux?
When vinified sweeter, it is richly textured with layers of honey, lanolin, and lush florality. Here, it’s a dessert wine and is traditionally paired with foie gras, but would also work well with sharp and tangy cheeses after a meal. The Sweet Bordeaux Regional Association also recently showed Winetraveler the potential to pair these wines with fresh seafood, including Sushi and Raw Oysters.
