Semillon Grape Varietal Blog Entry (With Tasting)

              

  Semillon, a grape which continues to decrease in popularity, was once considered to be the most planted grape in the world. This grape once covered over 90% of South Africa’s vineyards, and now, in the present day, it only accounts for around 1%. Semillon is a gold-skinned grape mostly used to make dry and sweet wines, which are most popular in the areas of western France, Australia, Chile, and Argentina. Its origin is believed to be Bordeaux, which is now of course home to some of the most famous red wines in the world. Semillon, in the 1960’s, was actually planted more than any other variety in Bordeaux. Since then, the rapid decrease in Semillon production began, when more sought after and marketable varieties such as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon were replanted in place of most of the Semillon vines. 

                Semillon is a very thick skinned grape, and is characterized by its golden autumnal colors. Although the fruit is most times a nice light golden green, it is never uncommon to find some pink and copper colored berries particularly near harvest time. It tends to bud later and ripen earlier than most grapes. This grape grows on very easy to cultivate vines and has a nice thick skin which makes them very resistant to splitting. It will normally produce anywhere from six to eight tons of grapes per acre from its vigorous vines.

                Semillon is most times not made as a varietal wine, and is in fact fairly hard to find. It is commonly blended with Sauvignon Blanc or Muscadelle in order to balance its weight or to add sweetness. When you do happen to stumble upon a varietal of this grape, it tends to be a dry or sweet wine. Key regions where you will find the dry Semillons are Graves, Bordeaux, and the Hunter Valley in Australia. You can also find it in various other places such as the United States, Chile, South Africa, and New Zealand. The sweet Semillons are usually found wherever that particular vine may grow, but the most renowned regions for theses sweet wines are Sauternes and Barsac in Bordeaux.

                As one of the major countries still using this grape, France tends to use it in many different ways. As mentioned earlier, France tends to take the grapes and mix them with other varieties like Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle, to create a very tasty blended white. Semillon tends to play a very minor part in these whites, but as a whole, this is their most common use. However, there are plenty of wines, especially those sweeter whites out of Sauternes, Barsac, and Cerons, that use Semillon as the main variety. These have become some of the most famous Semillons around the world because of their sweet flavors including honey, stone fruits, and vanilla. Of the 35,000 hectares of this grape planted worldwide, Bordeaux is home to around 40% of those grapes.

                Australia is another region where Semillon is still widely grown, especially in the area known as The Hunter Valley, located just north of Sydney. The Semillon varietal there was once known as the “Hunter Valley Riesling” because it took on the sweet qualities of a Riesling but was in fact largely made from Semillon grapes. Australia has four styles of Semillon based wines. These include a commercial style, sweet style, a complex minerally style, and a high quality dry style. The commercial style is particularly similar to the common wines in France and just used to produce high volumes of blended whites. The sweet style, is typically similar to those produced out of Sauternes, with a large portion of the wine being from Semillon grapes and having those sweet and honey flavors. The complex style, which normally has sort of a mineral taste to it, is generally early picked and has great longevity, with some wines still drinking well 40 years later. The dry style, tends to be released directly after its vintage year, and never matured in oak barrels.

                Outside of these two main regions, Semillon tends to be fairly unpopular and is criticized for lack of intensity and complexity. Because of this, plantings of the grape have decreased rapidly over the past decade. The grape can still be found in several places in Chile and South Africa, and Chile has been known to have some of the most plantings in acres. This tends to fluctuate often though. In the United States, Semillon can be found in California and in Washington state. California primarily  uses Semillon to blend it with their Sauvignon Blanc as most places do, and Washington actively uses Semillon in their Ice Wine and late harvest wine. Recently, Argentina and New Zealand have been using the grape, but mostly using it as the majority of places do, as an ingredient for blends.

                To go along with this report on Semillon, I decided I wanted to go out and try a varietal bottle for myself. This proved to be particularly difficult, actually, very difficult. After searching through all the wine at Kroger, a varietal of Semillon was nowhere to be found. Luckily our friends at The Vintage Cellar were able to help me out. They had 3 bottles in the store that had a large chunk of Semillon in them. One was 50% Semillon, another 60% Semillon, and the last was 100% Semillon. I wish I could have picked up the bottle that was 100% but it was out of my price range. I settled on the bottle that was 60% Semillon which was still even a little expensive for me at $14.95. This wine is as follows:

Name: Chateau Des Perligues

Variety: 60% Semillon, 40% Sauvignon

Region: Graves (Bordeaux Wine Region)

Country: France

Year: 2011

Price: $14.95

Before tasting it, I am expecting this to be the dry style Semillon since the sweet style usually hail from the Sauternes region. I really wish I could have gotten my hands on one of the sweet Semillons since I love sweet wine but, I tried. According to the label, it suggests that this be paired with fish or shellfish, so food on the lighter side of things. I would imagine that this would also go well with chicken, seeing as just about everything does. Since it’s a bit on the dry side, I’m sure it would complement the fish or shellfish nicely since fish and seafood are juicy. This would tend to balance out the palate quite nicely. I’m not sure what to expect before trying a bit for myself, as I’m usually not a fan of any wines that are on the dry side, especially the dry whites. But, I decided to try this wine with some seafood and to see how nicely this actually contrasts and complement each other. I know that my palate wouldn’t be able to handle a very dry wine by itself, so I have cooked up some scallops and rice to see how nicely they might pair with it, because like Boyer, once I open a bottle of wine, I tend to like to finish it that same evening. So these would be my general assumptions before I actually crack open the bottle. I’m going to say that, when just drinking the wine by itself, it’s going to have a nice stone fruitiness to it, maybe some pear or apple hints, but I think the taste itself might be a little overtaken by how dry it is. Now, I haven’t smelled it yet either, these are just some assumptions. Then I think when I pair it with the scallops it will transform into a very likable wine, balancing out the scallop’s juiciness with its dry qualities, and accenting the taste with the subtle fruitiness.

                Now, to taste the wine. Alright, so I have chilled the bottle for right around 30 min. On the nose I’m getting what I expected for the most part, a little stone fruit with maybe a hint of apple and pear. It smells like a typical white to my nose, until the tail end of the sniff when I start to get a nice amount of floral scents. This is a lot different from any other whites I’ve smelled because I can normally pick up the floral scents right away and this was the complete opposite. The deeper I sniff the more I’m picking up the intense floral notes. Now let’s taste this wine. I’m just going to say that that was not what I was expecting at all. I like this wine a lot more than I was expecting to by itself. It starts off with nice very subtle fruity notes and then almost bursts into higher intensity notes towards the tail end. And also not even close to the dryness that I was expecting. Yes it is a little on the dry side but not at all as bad as I thought and overall this is a fantastic wine. A nice subtle entry, then a burst of flavor, then a touch of dry on the end. Not a lot of astringency to be found here. Maybe just a slight amount at the tail end caused by the flavor burst and dryness. In my opinion, the sugar acid balance is spot on, as its not coming off too acidic or too strong with the alcohol, which sits right at 12%. There is not a lot of bitterness here either, only a small amount during that burst of flavor. Overall, a fairly simple wine that seems to transform into a complex, very tasty and “drinkable by itself” wine.

                Being from the Bordeaux wine region, this wine is one of the more rare types as that area is usually dominated by big Cabernet Sauvignons as well as Sauvignon Blancs. This wine tends to not have as many environmental factors because of the fact that it ripens earlier than most varieties. The one thing that is important to the growers is to pick it at just the right time, when it has began a process called noble rot. It actually begins to boost sugar levels and the grower must find that “sweet spot” of when to pick them or they can become extremely bitter.

                After cooking up my baby scallops along with some rice I was very interested to see how this wine would pair with it. I must say I am yet again impressed. The food actually makes this wine seem cleaner and more refreshing. It’s more tart as well, which some of the old bay I dashed on may be making this happen. The food is bringing out more of the sweetness in the wine, which I love. It almost tastes more along the lines of a tart Riesling now, which I am much a fan of. All in all, I’d say it complements this meal very nicely, and acts as a very smooth refreshment when taking a drink. Great purchase on my part.