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The Cellar

The Cellar is open in winter on Wednesday afternoon from 14:00hrs to 17:00hrs and Saturday morning from 10:00hrs to 12:00hrs and by appointment.
It is open every day in the summer, from July 1 to October 15, from 10:00hrs to 20:00hrs.

Back to vineyard success for the pharmacist.

This will be the second grape harvest for Françoise Bousquet, after 20 years in the dispensary.

Having experienced her first harvest under almost perfect climatic conditions last year, along with the rest of the wine growers in the region, Françoise Bousquet, winemaker at the Domaine du Pain de Sucre estate near Capestang, is experiencing a harvest that is not as simple.

“ The vines are healthy, everything is fine from that point of view. The problem this year is that everything is ripening at the same time. All the different grape varieties have to be harvested at the same time. That means that we have to work quickly. So I’m suddenly finding that I am bringing tanks into use for the wine making process that I had thought I would use for storage ”.

But these seasonal preoccupations with logistics do not faze this winemaker. Just over a year ago she took over the estate and she is working on the vinification and bringing the vineyards and buildings back into condition as well as making a self-catering holiday cottage and starting to commercialise her wines.

Françoise Bousquet’s parents and grandparents were winemakers and she was a pharmacist in Béziers for twenty years.
“ But then I felt a need to go back to the world in which I grew up and to produce my own wine » she explained. «This is a treat. I spend my time outside and my time is my own”.

She has come to the conclusion that in these difficult times for winegrowers the only way to succeed is through quality. And with this in view she has started a procedure to conclude a Contrat Territorial d'Exploitation (CTE) (territorial operation contract) associated with Ensérune.

This mainly concerns traceability. “ Throughout the year I record all the operations in the vineyards, (pruning, treating etc.,). During the grape harvest I write down what I put in each tank, the degrees noted each day and the delestage and remontage. This causes certain restrictions. But it also allows us to keep a trace of all that we’ve done from one year to the next ” she said.

This information is all written down in notebooks at the present but will be transferred to computer files as soon as possible.
The CTEs are currently blocked but in a recent statement Hervé Gaymard, minister of agriculture, announced that all CTEs would be honoured.

This is a chance for Françoise Bousquet to have financial aid, on condition that she continues to invest. “ In any case, I still have a great deal to do in the vineyards and in the cellar. I lack equipment on all levels. A CTE allows me to spread the expense over five years. The problem is that I have to say what I’m going to buy in any given year. Everything has to be planned in advance ” .

One thing is sure as far as this winemaker is concerned. She knows what she wants to do. And from this year she is producing a quite unusual Cinsault-Carignan-Grenache blend rosé wine. “ The current trend is for a fairly robust Syrah rosé. What I have done is to make a rosé that I personally enjoy. This rosé is a summer wine - a pleasure to drink during the hot weather ”

She has been pleasantly surprised by the welcome that her first Vins de Pays d’Oc wines and her red Merlot have received. And the magazine “Terres de vins” has dedicated an enthusiastic article to her in its latest edition. The remains of her 2001 production have been sold to a merchant.

One other advantage of this “young” estate is its name. Le Pain de Sucre, (Sugarloaf), is original and unusual in this region and therefore stays longer in people’s minds. The name would have come from the hillock on which the estate was built.

Among her immediate projects Françoise Bousquet plans on enlarging her range. She particularly wants to bottle the wine that was put in barrels after the 2001 grape harvest. This year she will pick certain parcels of Carignan by hand for vinification with carbonic maceration. “ I vinify each grape variety separately. For the blending I get together with the oenologist and my father, who has helped me a great deal right from the start ”.

Of the 30 hectares (70 acres) that she has, 18 hectares (around 44 acres) are in use. “ This winter I shall replant three hectares with Cabernet-Sauvignon and Syrah ”, she said. After this will come the white varieties.

Encouraged by her initial results, Françoise Bousquet does not want to rush things. “ Since I started, I have had more good surprises than bad. I find the work rewarding. Now I have to carry on ”.

Midi Libre (regional newspaper) : September 19, 2002