Semillon Wines | Prices, Types & Reviews
Written By: Brian Freedman on Tue, Jul 11th 2006
To the casual wine drinker, Semillon may or may not be terribly familiar. In its New World incarnation, Semillon is best known as a popular varietal wine that is produced in Australia. Here, it tends to produce a wine whose flavors can range from honey to flowers to spice. It is typically rather austere in its youth, but as the best ones age, they become rather more full-bodied and opulent.
Semillion is, however, most famously used in Bordeaux, where it is blended with Sauvignon Blanc to make the dry white wine of the region. It is particularly well-employed in the Graves region of Bordeaux. But nowhere is Semillon put to better use than in the exquisite Sauternes dessert wines. Here, the bunches of Semillon grapes are allowed to become infected with the Botrytis Cinera fungus, which causes the grapes to loose their water and shrivel, thereby concentrating the sugars. When these grapes are made into the famous Sauternes dessert wines, like those from Chateau d'Yquem, the results are deeply floral, richly honeyed, and can age for years several decades is quite normal before they reach their peak flavor and aroma.
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