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Soil :
The Domaine de Pain de Sucre was built in the 18C on the limits of two departments, the Aude and the Hérault, on a rocky spur that dates from the Miocene epoch.

It sits astride three communes :
To the west, the parcels situated within the commune of Capestang are characterised by a layer of colluvium over a sub-soil of blue clay.
To the south and west is the commune of Ouveillan. The soil here is clay and limestone
To the north, the Malvies stream delineates a clay and limestone coomb covered with ancient alluvium, situated within the Quarante commune.

This variety of soils and especially the carefully selected grape varieties that are grown there allow Françoise Bousquet to make very aromatic wines.

Grape varieties:
Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Grenache Noir, Muscat petit grains, Petit Verdot, Carignan, Cinsault, Alicante.

Working with wine:
Everything is controlled, right from the cultivation to the maturing. The estate has been accepted in a Land Cultivation Contract where chemical weed-killers are replaced by traditional soil cultivation in order to allow the vine to reach its full potential.

The date of the grape harvest is decided according to the ripeness of the grape, the acidity of the berries and the colour of the seeds. The grapes are tasted regularly and the degree measured. When very precise criteria have been reached, very fine analyses are carried out to confirm the optimum maturity. Only after this is the grape harvest date decided for each grape variety and for each parcel of the estate.

Harvesting and vinification are carried out separately according to grape variety and parcel of vineyard, and it is only at the end of the maturing that the decision is taken on which blends to make.

Maturing takes place in concrete or stainless steel tanks or casks depending on the wines.

For maturing in casks, Françoise Bousquet uses 225 litre oak casks. The wood is selected according to the grape variety and the wine stays in the casks for between 8 and 14 months depending on its progress. Blending is carried out after all the samples are tasted and the blend is stored in concrete tanks prior to bottling to avoid filtering.