Could Semillon be Chile’s great white hope?

Semillon, rather than Chardonnay, could be the base for Chile’s greatest whites, according to a couple of the country’s leading winemakers.

A sample of Carmen’s Semillon / Sauvignon blend which will be launched in October this year. Picture credit: Paulina Sánchez

The variety, which is native to Bordeaux, was once Chile’s most cultivated white grape, but much of it was pulled out in the 1970s, according to Viña Carmen winemaker Sebastián Labbé.

As a result, today there are just over 900 hectares left, making Semillon Chile’s fourth most planted white variety, significantly behind dominant grapes Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, with 14,400ha and 10,700ha respectively, as well as Muscat, which has over three times the plantings of Semillon, as you can see in the figures below. (This is a major change – according to Wikipedia, in the 50s, Semillon accounted for as much as 75% of Chile’s vineyards).

However, for Labbé, Semillon could create some of Chile’s best white wines, if handled property. “I see a lot of potential for the variety,” he said, speaking to the drinks business in Chile last month. “Semillon is part of the old Chile, and I would like to bring it to the new Chile,” he stated, adding, “I want to bring back the traditional with an updated approach.”

As part of this he is taking “old vine” Semillon from Apalta – “which was planted to freshen blends, but was going in to bulk wine” – and picking at around 12% potential alcohol to give “persistence and elegance”.

Carmen winemaker Sebastián Labbé sees “huge potential” for Chile’s old vine Semillon. Picture credit: Paulina Sánchez

In the winery, he’s looking for a “textural style”, and handling the hand-picked bunches in an “oxidative” manner, using vertical presses, “old Chardonnay barrels” and allowing fermentation to begin naturally without any nutrient additions.

Following this, he’s blending the Semillon with Sauvignon Blanc from Leyda to create a new 60% Semillon / 40% Sauvignon blend, which he says will come under the Carmen Gran Reserva label and retail in the UK for around £12-13 from October, using the 2015 harvest as the launch vintage.

The result is an attractive, citrusy, slightly oily wine with a touch of tannic grip, which has the potential to develop greater complexity in bottle and, should one put in a blind tasting, Labbé believes few would guess it was from Chile – a country far better known for its crisp Sauvignons.

But Labbé is not the only winemaker in Chile experimenting with Semillon for ambitious, age-worthy dry whites.

Santa Carolina’s chief winemaker Andres Caballero is also working with old vine Semillon from Apalta in the Colchagua Valley in the hope that he might move on to “the next stage of whites from Chile”.

He’s been experimenting with the grapes from 100 year-old, dry-farmed Semillon vines for the past two years, and, like Carmen’s Labbé, has been fermenting the grapes in oak (both new and old) and blending with Sauvignon Blanc.

For Caballero, the goal is to create “a great Graves”, referencing the Semillon/Sauvignon blends from Bordeaux, which are generally full-bodied, oak-aged whites with the potential to mature in bottle.

Consequently, earlier this year, Caballero made a “technical visit” to Domaine de Chevalier, one of Bordeaux’s best white wine producers, in his endeavour to craft a great Bordeaux-style white wine.

Also similar to Labbe’s approach, Caballero said that his use of Semillon was a move back to celebrating Chile’s past, and that he wanted to employ “old techniques”.

Indeed, having launched an “icon” Cabernet Sauvignon earlier this year called Luis Pereira (named after Santa Carolina’s founder), which employed viticultural and winemaking techniques from the 50s, Caballero said that the 100 year-old Semillon from Apalta could be used in the future to make a sister wine for this new red icon.

Finally, it should be noted that one of Chile’s most underrated whites is an existing Semillon from Apalta. Hailing from the region’s Casa Lapostolle, which is best known for its celebrated Carmenère blend called Clos Apalta, is a varietal Semillon from 80-year old vines on the producer’s Apalta estate.

The hand-harvested fruit is fermented in used oak barrels and then aged on lees for five months to produce an age-worthy and delicious white wine which sells for under £10 a bottle in the UK – but even at that price, as those at Lapostolle will admit, it’s not easy to attract buyers.

Tasting with Santa Carolina’s chief winemaker Andres Caballero (left). Picture credit: Paulina Sánchez

Chile plantings: white grapes (hectares)

Total area under vine: 130,362

Total white: 33,755

1. Sauvignon Blanc 14,393
2. Chardonnay 10,694
3. Muscat 3,344
4. Semillon 902
5. Viognier 823
6. Riesling 424