Jean-Pierre ILBERT founded Château Combel-la-Serre in 1998. The current owner, Julien, took over in 2003, and together with his wife Sophie, he works daily to improve the quality of the wines, which are of extremely high quality and made with love. The family-run chateau has 22 ha (21 ha Malbec, 1 ha Vermentino). In 2013, the château switched to organic viticulture and obtained Ecocert certification.
In his home village of Cournou, he has a small 1 ha plot of very young Vermentino, with soils rich in limestone and facing north, which allows him to produce a surprisingly fresh style of white wine. To emphasise freshness, the fruit is picked and pressed whole bunch without skin contact and the wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks with autochthonous yeasts and bottled immediately.
As white wines are not permitted in this appellation, it is classified as an IGP Côtes du Lot.