The Combrillac vineyard is perched on a hill overlooking the Dordogne valley, at the gates of the town of Bergerac, in the heart of the Périgord Pourpre .
The estate is made up of 25 hectares in one piece , including only 12 hectares of vines. The absence of fragmentation and busy roads is in fact essential to avoid the fragmentation of ecosystems and ecological habitats .
A crown of tall trees surrounds the entire property, which also includes natural meadows and rural hedges. At the heart of the estate is an area for growing medicinal and vegetable plants on mounds with permanent mulch (no tillage, no irrigation), 5 hectares of cereals (ancient wheat), a hops patch, orchards with nearly 500 fruit trees. (regional but also non-European varieties - Siberian honeysuckle, pecan tree, Brazilian feijoa, Sichuan pepper tree, yuzu, etc. - to anticipate climate change), oak groves and an acacia grove from which we continue to draw our vine stakes. Finally, areas deliberately left fallow are transitioning to a forest state .
In 2022, we have implemented an ambitious wine forest project (vines married to the tree - vite maritata -), in order to imagine a more virtuous and resilient alternative vitiforestry system. In 2024, we are creating a 0.5 hectare wine garden with hybrid grape varieties in the middle of an orchard and vegetable mounds.
The preservation of biodiversity and varietal diversity , with the aim of mitigating vine monoculture, constitutes our greatest concern in our actions since our full-time installation in 2018. We practice organic and mindful farming. , taking into account the ethical principles of permaculture (Earth Care, People Care, Future Care).
The wines are mainly aged in amphorae (around twenty in total ranging from 400 to 900 liters) or in stainless steel vats. Our barrels, now 10 years old, are only used for the fermentation phases (no aging in wood). We are also experimenting with other containers such as stainless steel spheres .
As for the holy grail, namely the search for a wine without added sulfur , we believe that it is appropriate above all to be consistent and above all transparent with regard to the many other equally inglorious compensatory methods that can flourish in the darkness of a cellar. In recent years, a powerful imagination has focused on the ambient snobbery of a (pop) culture of sulfur-free wine. We are of course aiming to reduce its use as much as possible, which is still too often crazy in the world of wine today . But we prefer to add a little sulfur when bottling and completely free ourselves from all other often unadmitted corrective methods than to advocate zero sulfur at all costs!
*Hand harvest only on the 12 hectares planted (no machines)
*Grapes from our plots exclusively (no purchase of grapes)
*Native yeasts
*Very low dose or absence of added sulfur (< 30 mg/liter of total SO2)
*No corrective intervention in the cellar
*Washable glue labels to integrate into glass reuse sectors, untreated natural cork
