Drinking the Landscape

When I was in Avignon I called my mom to check in. Among other motherly topics such as being careful and remembering to pay bills, she asked if I was doing anything besides riding and drinking. The short answer is... sort of.

I never was that into wine before I came on this trip, but the majority of our route has been through wine country. We don't have many ways to keep ourselves occupied at night, so we often pick up a bottle of wine. Red wine can just stay in the pannier bag, white wine gets stored in a river for an hour.

This is, in some ways, a defense of the amount of wine I consume. No offense, mom! I am in the best physical shape of my life, and my metabolism is really fast. Besides overdoing it in Avignon, I have yet to have a hangover.

Maybe this is a bit of a bullshit argument, but I think drinking local wine is another way to connect to the landscape that we slowly travel through. We always try to find wine from a local vineyard. I am no connoisseur, but I am starting to taste how the soil, amount of sunlight, and age of a wine creates variety and nuance. Well, maybe a little bit. It also helps me go to sleep when coyotes are howling or giant Italian bats are screeching through the night.

Drinking wine offers a perfect balance to a day of exertion, of movement. And besides, bread and wine are the two things that are cheaper in Europe. If you still doubt my argument then answer this: is there any coincidence that wine bottles fit perfectly on the water bottle holders on our bikes. I rest my case.