Sémillon
Sémillon is a plump white grape popular in Bordeaux and Australia. It is used to make both dry and sweet wines, with its most popular incarnation as the base for Sauternes. It is thick-skinned and relatively easy to cultivate with a good resistance to disease and a propensity to ripen early. Outside of Australia’s Hunter Valley, Sémillon typically produces wines that are low in acid with a round mouth, and as a result is commonly blended with more assertively aromatic and flavorful varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc. You can use Wine Enthusiast’s online Buying Guide to find the top-rated Sémillon among our extensive Sémillon wine reviews and easy-to-use database. Our Sémillon reviews will give you a general idea what to expect from wines made from Sémillon, and will help you find one that best suits your needs.
Showing 1 thru -9 of 257
Macauley 2007 Special Selected Late Harvest Botrytis Sémillon (Alexander Valley)
- $45
This is one of the best dessert wines available from California. It’s dazzlingly rich and sweet in orange jam, apricot, honey, buttered cinnamon toast and créme brûlée flavors. The intense sweetness is perfectly balanced with crisp acidity, and the wine despite its sweetness accomplishes the miracle of finishing dry and clean. The grapes are 100% Sémillon.
— S.H.
(6/1/2011)
Chalk Hill 2005 Botrytised Sémillon (Chalk Hill)
- $55
This is one of the sweetest white California dessert wines out there. It’s addictively decadent, like an upscale Sauternes. Barrel fermentation in new French oak gives an opulent, palate-flattering honeyed vanilla richness to the apricot, peach, pineapple and crème brûlée flavors that are so rich and refined. Crisp acidity provide clean, vibrant balance. Just…
— S.H.
(12/31/2007)
Chalk Hill 2006 Estate Vineyard Selection Botrytised Sémillon (Chalk Hill)
- Online Exclusive
- $80
A spectacular dessert wine. The residual sugar is 18%, making it superrich in honeyed sweetness, complexed with apricot, pineapple, pear, vanilla cream and new oak flavors of butterscotch and crème brûlée. But it’s also crisp in acidity, giving it a clean scour. One of the best sweeties of the vintage.
— S.H.
(11/1/2009)
Chalk Hill 2009 Botrytised Sémillon (Chalk Hill)
- Online Exclusive
- $44
This is absolutely delicious, offering heady waves of orange marmalade, butterscotch candy, crème brûlée and honey that are wildly opulent. This is a go-to bottling for very sweet, unctuous California dessert wines.
— S.H.
(9/1/2012)
Longboard 2007 Late Harvest Sémillon (Sonoma Valley)
- Editors' Choice
- $35
A gorgeous dessert wine. Supersweet in honey, apricot jam, orange blossom, crème brûlée and vanilla flavors, it’s balanced with rich acidity, and finishes with a spicy touch of smoke. Compelling and addictive, this is one of the best sweet wines of the year.
— S.H.
(12/15/2009)
Chalk Hill 2008 Botrytised Sémillon (Chalk Hill)
- $45
Very, very sweet and decadent, like pure honey. Nectar of the gods-type wine, oozing spicy apricot, orange, roasted almond and vanilla honey flavors. To describe the mouthfeel as creamy hardly does it justice, it’s so viscous and glyceriney. A magnificent dessert wine to savor.
— S.H.
(12/31/2011)
Stony Hill 2000 Semillon du Soleil Sémillon (Napa Valley)
- $15
Here’s dessert in a glass. Smells apricotty and botrytisy and vanilla-honeyed, and drinks rich in nectar. This makes it sound astoundingly sweet, but it’s not. Tastes like sautéed bananas, caramelized in butter, flamed in amaretto, and served on top of vanilla ice cream.
— S.H.
(5/1/2005)
Forgeron 2008 Late Harvest Sémillon (Walla Walla Valley (WA))
- Online Exclusive
- $14
Les Collines vineyard provided the fruit, a thick, honeyed mass of dried apricots, peaches and papaya. Dense yet retaining its acid-driven structure, it’s a rich, seemingly endless dive into a vat of sweet nectar. The residual sugar (9.6%) and alcohol (10.5%) are in perfect balance.
— P.G.
(11/1/2010)
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