Combel La Serre

The story of Combel-La-Serre

On the limestone plateaus of Cahors, Château de Combel-la-Serre has been a family estate since 1901. At first, the grapes went to the cooperative where Jean-Pierre Ilbert worked. In 1998, Jean-Pierre left the cooperative when his son Julien, then 18, announced he wanted to come home after his studies and find his path.
With his wife Martine, Jean-Pierre named the estate after the land they live on: Combel is the plot where their house stands, also planted with vines, and La Serre is the plot opposite, where the farm buildings are. Combel-La-Serre was officially born in 1998. At first the wine was sold in bulk to raise funds and invest in making their own wines: winemaking equipment, tanks and a new cellar. But bulk sales collapsed just as Julien settled permanently on the estate with his father. The only way to repay the investments was to bottle their wine and become independent winegrowers.

Natural wines from South-West France

At the time, Combel-La-Serre was still unknown to the public. So between 2003 and 2010, Jean-Pierre, Martine, Julien and his wife Sophie travelled across France to sell their wines at markets, fairs and wine shows. These trips and encounters gave the young couple a new outlook on winemaking and selling. The trigger was the birth of their first daughter in 2011: they wanted her to grow up in a healthier environment and a cleaner nature. The couple began converting the estate to organic farming. The first years were hard: unable to hire extra staff, the whole family pitched in.
But hard work pays off. Since 2013, organic farming with green manures has brought out the typical expression of the local terroir, and in 2016 all of Combel-La-Serre's plots were certified organic by Ecocert. A great success for the Ilbert family!
Thanks to Sophie and Julien, who keep improving their organic practices, Combel-La-Serre pays a fine tribute to the region's legendary grape: Malbec.
Organic farming has improved both the vineyard and the taste of the wine. Harvesting is done by hand by a team trained in plant care, which gives a healthier crop every year. Julien also experiments, with the first carbonic maceration of Malbec in 2014, the year his son was born, and a country wine made from Vermentino, a grape the couple loves, grown on the coolest terroirs of the estate.

The cuvées of Combel-La-Serre

Always with respect for living things, Julien constantly seeks fruit and freshness in his cuvées, making supple, aromatically complex and elegant wines.
Among the reds is the Cuvée Château, which shows the Cahors appellation at its best through its grape, Malbec: fresh and digestible, with woody notes and dark fruit.
La Vigne juste derrière chez Carbo is also 100% Malbec. Its name refers to Julien's neighbours, nicknamed "the Carbos", whose house sits in front of the plot. Fruity and juicy, it stands out for its freshness and lightness.
Les Peyres Levades, Occitan for "standing stones", is a 100% Malbec from a plot at 350 metres, the most limestone-rich on the estate, hence its name. All the minerality of the soil comes through, with the potential of an exceptional wine for ageing.
Au Cerisier comes from a single plot of red clay on limestone, also at 350 metres, where a cherry tree grows. With delicate aromas of wild cherry, it strikes a fine balance between grape, terroir and pleasure.
The white L'Éléphant Blanc is made from Vermentino: an expressive wine with plenty of freshness, fruit and juiciness. Drink it now!
L'Épatant antidote à la chaleur du Causse is a directly pressed Malbec rosé from clay-limestone soils on the Causse, at 330 metres. With red fruit aromas, it is wonderfully refreshing.
Typical natural wines from Cahors, honouring the region's number one grape, Malbec. Not to be missed on Epi-curieux.com.
No surprise that the wines of Combel-La-Serre were featured in Jérôme Gagnez's wine column on France Inter, in the show hosted by the well-known food journalist François-Régis Gaudry. The two journalists praised the estate's wines, especially the rosé L'Épatant antidote à la chaleur du Causse: fresh and long, a rosé they both recommend. A victim of its own success since the show, it comes back in stock regularly!