Semillon Synonyms
Writing a blog post generally leads me to obscure tidbits of knowledge — usually not the knowledge that I was originally looking for. That ’s how researching the use of semillon in French wines — , , , blah, blah, blah — got me plunged into the fascinating world of
The French language has — or used to have, at least — so many local rural dialects, or patois — that the number of alternate names for anything agricultural or food-related is astounding. And grape varieties — cépages in French, at least in the French I speak — are no exception.
Thus Sémillon can be a grape by many other names and still smell as sweet. Some not-too-mysterious monikers are “sémillon muscat,” sémillon roux,” and “gros sémillon.” One would have to be pretty smart, though, to figure out that “chevrier,” “malaga,” and “dau(s)ne” are also nicknames for the variety.
But my favorite alternate name for semillon, is “sauternes!” Oh yes, Semillon is also called “green grape” in South Africa, but somehow that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
