Semillon

Sémillon is a versatile white grape best known from Bordeaux in France and Australia’s Hunter Valley, producing everything from crisp, dry whites to rich, honeyed dessert wines. Expect lemon, apple and pear with waxy, nutty and honeyed notes as it develops. It’s brilliant with seafood, roast chicken, creamy pasta, soft cheese and fruit desserts.

Taste:

One grape, several completely different personalities.

Dry Sémillon is typically light to medium-bodied, with flavours of lemon, green apple and pear alongside subtle herbs and a distinctive waxy texture. Young examples can be incredibly fresh and restrained, while ageing can bring richer flavours of toast, nuts, honey and lanolin.

In Bordeaux, Sémillon is frequently blended with Sauvignon Blanc, combining its body and texture with Sauvignon's acidity and aromatics.

Then there's sweet Sémillon. When affected by noble rot, the grape can produce intensely rich dessert wines packed with apricot, peach, honey and marmalade.

Versatile feels like an understatement.

Food Pairings:

The right food depends heavily on which style of Sémillon you've opened.

Dry Sémillon is brilliant with seafood, including prawns, crab, grilled fish, sea bass, cod and scallops. It also works beautifully with roast chicken, grilled chicken and lighter pork dishes.

Richer or aged styles can handle creamy food, including chicken in a creamy sauce, seafood pasta, mushroom pasta, mushroom risotto and roast chicken.

For cheese, try Brie, Camembert, Comté or Gruyère with dry and richer styles.

Sweet Sémillon opens up dessert territory. Try it with apricot tart, peach desserts, crème brûlée, cheesecake or fruit tart. It’s also famously good with blue cheese and foie gras.

Basically, check the bottle before planning dinner. Sémillon could be bringing seafood energy or dessert energy, and those are two very different group chats.

Similar Wines:

If you enjoy dry Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc is an obvious next step, particularly as the two grapes are frequently blended together in Bordeaux.

Chardonnay is worth exploring if you enjoy Sémillon's richer texture and ability to develop nutty, complex flavours with age.

For sweet styles, Sauternes is essential exploring, with Sémillon usually forming the backbone of these famous Bordeaux dessert wines.

Monbazillac offers another rich French sweet wine where Sémillon often plays an important role.

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More About Sémillon:

Sémillon originated in southwestern France and remains one of Bordeaux's important white grapes, alongside Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle.

Its thin skins make it particularly susceptible to Botrytis cinerea, or noble rot. Under the right conditions, this fungus shrivels the grapes and concentrates their sugar, acidity and flavour – essential to legendary sweet wines such as Sauternes.

Travel to Australia's Hunter Valley and Sémillon takes on another identity entirely. Wines there can be extremely light and restrained when young but develop remarkable toast, honey and nutty complexity after years in bottle – often without ever seeing an oak barrel.

Same grape. Seafood white. Ageing superstar. Dessert icon.

Sémillon has clearly refused to specialise.