Principal white grape
Sémillon
How to read this
Capitals mark the stressed syllable. “ohn” is a nasal vowel: say it through the nose, with no n. The recording is the reference.
Sémillon is a white grape of the Gironde with no parents yet named, which with Sauvignon made the great growths of Sauternes and still shares the lead in the white vineyard.
Sémillon is a white grape, and VIVC, the variety catalog of the Julius Kühn-Institut, gives it no parents. Its names need care. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, wrote in 1868 that it was called “Colombar” in the Gironde and “Chevrier” in the Dordogne; in their 1922 edition “colombar” beside Sémillon more likely means Colombard. The abbé Bellet, a canon of Cadillac whose manuscripts included the account of a 1736 journey through Guyenne, called it “Sémillion ou Saint-Emilion”, while VIVC files “Saint Emilion” under Sémillon, Cot, Folle Blanche, and Trebbiano Toscano.
Auguste Petit-Lafitte, professor of agriculture of the Gironde, reported Bellet’s double name in La vigne dans le Bordelais (1868), and noted that M. de Secondat, Montesquieu’s son, only mentioned the grape in 1785. Petit-Lafitte judged that it belonged first to his own country and that its reputation showed its culture there was very old. By 1816 André Jullien, author of the Manuel du sommelier, wrote that the white wines of Barsac, Preignac, and Sauternes came from the “sauvignon”, the “semilion blanc”, the “auba”, and a few others. Petit-Lafitte called it the grape of the Côtes, and wrote that one Sémillon vine could give as much as 4 or 5 of Sauvignon.
In 1868 Cocks and Féret put Sémillon, with Sauvignon, “at the head of the white vines” (“à la tête des cépages de vignes blanches”), adding that the 2 together made up almost all the vines of the great growths of Sauternes. The guide kept a record of each estate: in 1886 it gave Château Climens as four fifths Sémillon and one fifth Sauvignon and “muscade”. Petit-Lafitte knew 2 main forms, a “Sémillion blanc” and a “Sémillion roux”, both in the collection of the Château de Carbonnieux.
The turn is recent. Between 1988 and 2018 the Gironde lost 5,540 hectares of Sémillon, according to Agreste, the farm statistics service, while Sauvignon gained share; Sémillon still stayed the leading white grape. In 2020 the CIVB, the Bordeaux wine council, gave Sémillon 46% of the white vineyard of Bordeaux, level with Sauvignon.
Oldest record in my library: The abbé Bellet, canon of Cadillac (18th-century manuscripts, one recounting a 1736 journey through Guyenne), as reported by Auguste Petit-Lafitte, La vigne dans le Bordelais, 1868; the earliest direct record in my library is André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus, 1816
The family
Parents unknown.
Sémillon
The names
As the Gironde books wrote it: Semillon, semilion, Sémillion, Saint-Emilion, Colombar, Colombier, Chevrier, Crucillant, Cruvillant, Sémillon Blanc, Sémillon Roux, Sémillon Croquant, Sémillon à bois noir, Blanc-Sémillon.
Other names in VIVC: Blanc Doux, Blanc Semillon, Chevrier, Chevrier Blanc, Colombar, Colombier, Dausne, Goulu Blanc, Gros Semillon, Maisois, Mances Blanc, Mansois Blanc, Marcillac, Monsois Blanc.
Old names: Blanc-Doux (open), Malaga (open)
In today’s rules
Principal (white) in 22 of the appellations and designations on this site; principal (sparkling) in 1; accessory (rosé) in 1.
- Principal · white
- Barsac, Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieur, Cadillac, Cérons, Côtes de Bordeaux, Côtes de Bordeaux-Saint-Macaire, Côtes de Bourg, Entre-deux-Mers, Francs Côtes de Bordeaux, Graves, Graves Supérieures, Graves de Vayres, Haut-Benauge, Loupiac, Médoc, Pessac-Léognan, Premières Côtes de Bordeaux, Sainte-Croix-du-Mont, Sainte-Foy Côtes de Bordeaux, Sauternes
- Principal · sparkling
- Crémant de Bordeaux
- Accessory · rosé
- Bordeaux (Sémillon and the 2 Sauvignons together: up to 20% of the estate’s vines for rosé and of each lot for sale)
Area planted
- 46% share of white-variety area, Bordeaux vineyard (CIVB), 2020
CIVB, Bordeaux Key Facts 2021 (data labeled 'Signature grapes (2020 data)'), PDF hosted at https://www.about-drinks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/CIVB-Bordeaux-Key-Facts-2021_09.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12
Stands out at
In the books
“These qualities follow from a faultless choice of vines, in which only the Sémilion and the Sauvignon are admitted”
Du reste , ces qualités sont la conséquence d'un choix de cépages irréprochable où seuls le Sémilion et le Sauvignon sont introduits
“It covers 27 hectares, planted four fifths with sémillon and one fifth with sauvignon and muscade.”
Il a une étendue de 27 hect . , complantés pour les 4/5 en sémillon et pour 1/5 en sauvignon et en muscade .
“Mr. Bourson has also planted a small white vineyard, two thirds blanc sémillon and the other third sauvignon blanc from Sauternes and muscade from Montbazillac.”
M. Bourson a également planté un petit vignoble de vignes blanches dont les deux tiers sont composés de blanc sémillon et le troisième de sauvignon blanc de Sauternes et de muscade de Montbazillac .
“The vineyard is all sauvignon or sémillon, apart from a few plots planted with “metternich”, the name given to the riessling”
L'encépagement est tout en sauvignon ou sémillon ; à part quelques pièces plantées en « metternich » nom donné au riessling
My library records it planted at 121 estates, and 10 of them have a page here:
Timeline
- 1816Jullien lists 'le semilion' among the Gironde's white vines, used in Barsac, Preignac, Sauternes and Graves.
André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus, 1st ed., 1816, ch. XX 'Guienne et Gascogne', §I Gironde, pp. 198-201 - 1868Cocks & Féret say Sémillon is called 'Colombar' in the Gironde and 'Chevrier' in the Dordogne, and with Sauvignon heads the white varieties.
Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite, 2nd ed., 1868, 'Cépages de vignes blanches', p. 25 - 2018Sémillon loses 5,540 ha in the Gironde between 1988 and 2018 but stays the leading white variety.
Agreste Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Études n°7 (June 2020, rectificatif), '1. Le foncier viticole: la Gironde', C. Lavaud and J. Bonotaux, p. 73, Figure 2 'Évolution des surfaces par encépagement entre 1988 et 2018, en hectare' (sources printed: RGA 1988, CVI 2018), https://draaf.nouvelle-aquitaine.agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/AgresteNAEtudes_7juin2020_FFvitiGironde_RECTIFICATIF_cle0edc51.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12; Agreste Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Études n°7 (June 2020, rectificatif), p. 73 text, https://draaf.nouvelle-aquitaine.agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/AgresteNAEtudes_7juin2020_FFvitiGironde_RECTIFICATIF_cle0edc51.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12 - 2020Sémillon holds 46% of the white-variety area in Bordeaux.
CIVB, Bordeaux Key Facts 2021 (data labeled 'Signature grapes (2020 data)'), PDF hosted at https://www.about-drinks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/CIVB-Bordeaux-Key-Facts-2021_09.pdf, accessed 2026-10-12
In the lab
More than 774 studies and theses in the Bordeaux Reviews library mention this grape.
- Heat waves reveal additive genetic effects leading to sunburn resilience of grapevine berries
Tom Heinekamp, Franco Röckel, Katja Herzog, Oliver Trapp, Reinhard Töpfer, F. Schwander, 2025 - Characterization of varietal effects on the acidity and pH of grape berries for selection of varieties better adapted to climate change
Marc Plantevin, Yoann Merpault, Julien Lecourt, Agnès Destrac-Irvine, Lucile Dijsktra, Cornelis van Leeuwen, 2024 - Gradient of grapevine varietal susceptibility to esca
Pierre Gastou, Lucas Etienne, Lucia Guérin-Dubrana, Chloé Delmas, 2024 - Production de vin de Bordeaux blanc et de vin de Sauternes au Château Guiraud, 1er grand cru classé de Sauternes
Benoît Robert, 2023
Sources
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026 (passport 11480, Sémillon; prime-name search 'SEMILLON')
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite (2e éd.) (1868), 'Cépages de vignes blanches', pp. 24-25
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite (9e éd.) (1922), 'Ampélographie', pp. 14-15
- Auguste Petit-Lafitte, La vigne dans le Bordelais, 1868, pp. 164-171; on the abbé Bellet, pp. 143-144 and notes
- Almanach du buveur, 1870, and Cocks, Bordeaux et ses vins, 1874, publisher's lists: 'Auguste Petit-Lafitte, professeur d'agriculture du département de la Gironde'
- Petit-Lafitte 1868 on J.-B. Secondat de Montesquieu, son of the author of L'Esprit des lois, and his Histoire du chêne printed in 1785
- André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus, 1st ed., 1816, ch. XX, Gironde, pp. 198-201 (title page: 'Auteur du Manuel du Sommelier')
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite (2e éd.) (1868) (Suduiraut)
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite (5e éd.) (1886) (Climens)
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite (6e éd.) (1893), p. 405 (Mangot)
- Charles Cocks & Édouard Féret, Bordeaux et ses vins classés par ordre de mérite (9e éd.) (1922) (Guiraud)
- Agreste Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Études n°7 (June 2020, rectificatif), 'Le foncier viticole: la Gironde', C. Lavaud and J. Bonotaux, p. 73, Figure 2 (RGA 1988, CVI 2018), accessed October 2026
- CIVB, Bordeaux Key Facts 2021 ('Signature grapes (2020 data)'), https://www.about-drinks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/CIVB-Bordeaux-Key-Facts-2021_09.pdf, accessed October 2026
- Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026
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