A very important white grape variety blended in greater or lesser proportions to make the great dry and sweet wines of Bordeaux. On its own it also produces good full-bodied dry whites in Australia - particularly the Hunter Valley.
Characteristics: When unblended this variety can tend towards fatness and relative dullness. Examples from the Margaret River and Hunter Valley areas of Australia where the wines may have seen some oak-ageing can, after a couple of years, provide a full-bodied more subtly flavoured alternative to the hefty, buttery weight of a Chardonnay. These days it is often blended with its more show-off cousin Chardonnay as it adds a sort of canvas upon which Chardonnay can express itself more subtly. In the great dry whites of Bordeaux it brings weight and roundness when combined with the aromatic Sauvignon enabling the wines to achieve considerable complexity with age. It must surely be in the great sweet Sauternes and Barsac wines that it achieves its greatest platform. Semiilon is prone to developing botrytis cinerea or noble rot without which it would not be possible to produce the world's greatest, most long-lives sweet wines.
Where is it found? Bordeaux, Australia, Chile, Argentina, South Africa.
Wines associated: Sauternes, Hunter Valley, Margaret River
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