"Working by Hand" (Winemaking)
Winemaking: Sémillon At-A-Glance
- Most common styles
- Still, sweet
- Winemaker choices and options
- For dry wines, virtually all winemakers keep intervention to a minimum, preferring resulting wines to be all about purity of fruit. For dessert styles, managing late harvest and/or Botrytis-affected fruit requires care. In drier styles, Lees stirring can be utilized to enhance texture
- Aging
- Stainless steel, concrete, large oak (vats, foudres), small oak (combination of newer and older, for some dry but also many sweet interpretations)
- Aging potential
- 2-10 years, pedigree-dependent; the best can live even longer. The finest sweet dessert styles can last for decades, as can some of the best dry iterations from Australia’s Hunter Valley
- Presented solo or frequently blended with
- Both. Most often in white blends with Sauvignon Blanc, but other grapes can be used (notably Chardonnay in Australia and Muscadelle in France). Single variety wines are more common in Australia and other New World locations.
Sémillon is versatile and capable of making delicious wines that are single pure varietal expressions. It can also play a leading or supporting role in tasty blends, as well as pricey world-renowned dessert wines. If you love a zesty Sauvignon Blanc you will love cool climate Sémillon. If you fancy a richer Chardonnay, you’ll adore the richness and creaminess in a warm climate Sémillon.
For more on Sémillon, check out WinePros’ “The Essential Guide to Semillon Wine.”
Blending with other grapes
- What it does: when classically mixed with its historic cousins, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle, Sémillon is responsible for contributing a richer and often waxy texture, together with just ripe to ripe fruit characteristics.
- Comment: there are great examples of Sémillon-led blends with Sauvignon Blanc; most French regions abide by this formula, as do Australia’s “SSBs” (Sémillon-Sauvignon Blanc). But there are numerous examples, especially in California, where those percentages are reversed, with Sauvignon Blanc the lead player. Ditto in Australia with “SBS” wines (Sauvignon Blanc-Sémillon)).
Dryness levels
Some grapes, most white, are extremely versatile and capable of producing world-class wines in all styles, from bone-dry to sparkling to intensely sweet.
- What it does: Targeting a sweetness level for the wine determines its style -- dry, off-dry, medium-sweet or sweet.
- Comment: While there are great examples of dry wines made with or from Sémillon, many of the best examples are vinified sweet into dessert styles. Hello Sauternes, Barsac, Cadillac, and Loupiac, not to mention some of the best sweet interpretations in California. While they may not share geography or exact blends, they all share some level of late harvesting and often Botrytis-affected grapes. Botrytized versions are more richly textured and will display layers of honey, candied ginger and saffron. Aged Botrytis-affected Sémillon takes on a deep golden color and, especially when young, that’s how to determine if the wine was Botrytis-affected versus simply late-harvested.