There are various hobby and sports threads on here, but I couldn’t spot a cycling related one? Feel free to merge if required.
Wondering if there are other wine appreciating cyclists (or even bike appreciating winos?!) out there?
Given the approaching winter, TWS Zwifters?
Anyway, a thread for chatting about where cycling meets wine. For me its partly about pre-burning the wine calories, but feel free to add thoughts on cycling tours through wine regions, favourite rides, etc.
Guess a bottle would fit in the wire water bottle holder …. I’ve just had to replace the derailleur (that must be a french word) after my wife crashed n burned
I can confirm that a wine bottle fits almost perfectly in a bidon cage. And when touring, has the benefit over beer of higher abv and so lower weight per drink!
Travelling light, but not skipping on the essentials!
A monk at the top of the Moenchberg (monks’ hill) vineyard, just outside Andlau (visible in the background)
Thanks for starting such a thread, nice one !
Although my experience of such is limited, riding parts of the Routes des Vins d’Alsace in 2015 played a major part in the most enjoyable holiday I’ve ever taken. Magnificent villages and scenery, quiet roads, most of which were closed to vehicular traffic, and great food and drink to help recover afterwards. So, perfect in every respect for me 
Back home, I’m lucky enough to live on the periphery of the Chiltern Hills which is a beautiful place to ride and enjoy the wonders of nature. Yeah. it’s a bit up and down but the tough bits give me personal satisfaction and are compensated for by the downhills after they’ve been negotiated. Once again, a good meal and a bottle of wine on returning home always seems like a guilt free, and well deserved, pleasure too !
I celebrated my 50th birthday with a Burgundy cycling holiday which included bike hire and transport of luggage between hotels. The highlights were a birthday meal at Maison Lameloise in Chagny, a tasting at Christophe Vaudoisy in Volnay, the Hospice de Beaune and a tutored wine tasting and lunch at Olivier Leflaive at Puligny Montrachet.
It was very enjoyable, a group of pals having a great time and drinking the wine of the appellations we were passing through. Started and ended in Cotes Chalonaise and got quite pricey as we travelled through Beaune, Nuits St George and Puligny. A memorable holiday.
That sounds amazing !
Out on the bike for the first time in far too long - a quick romp round the local hills really took it out of me. Good fun and glad I did it though. Not too muddy for this time of year either.
Cycling around vineyards and cellar doors is my preferred means of so doing, though is not always practical. The benefits are :- an appreciation of the terrain, less downward pressure on drinking vs spitting, and a ceiling on how many bottles are purchased per day (I can fit 3 into each of my panniers, max). But the terrain can’t be too hilly (less of an issue in recent years owing to having got ebikes), roads in between not too busy, or the wineries too far apart…or the weather too hot or too wet ! Many such regions have tracks unsuitable for cars but perfect for bikes - such as the track along the Mosel or the Rotweinwanderweg in the Ahr.
Just for fun I’ve looked back in time at the wine regions I’ve enjoyed cycling around cellar doors and tasted en route over the years (30+)…in other words, all these regions are very do-able on bikes.
Loire - upper, central and lower, Fiefs Vendeens/Ile de Ré, Alsace, Jura, Champagne, Chablis, Cote d’Or, Cote Chalonnais, Cote de Beaune, Cornas/St Joseph / St Peray, CdR villages, Cahors, Gaillac, St Pourcain, Madiran, Jurancon, La Clape, Minervois / St Chinian
Luxembourg
Central Mosel, Ahr, Pfalz, Baden
Wachau
Tokaj
Rias Baixas, Rioja, Somontano, Navarra (around Olite), Tzakoli, Priorat, Mallorca
Vinho Verde (the northern bit along the Minho)
Chianti Classico
Nelson, Bannockburn, Marlborough, Martinborough, Waiheke Island,
Coonawarra, Clare, Hunter Valley
I’m sure this is not exhaustive.
But here’s a very few selections from the archives…
Brilliant! Great pictures. 
Is that contraption in front of the wine rack what they call a re-humidifier.
It certainly performs that function very effectively
Watched the highlights of last weekend’s Gravel Cycling World Championships today, held in the Veneto region.
Part of the course went through various vineyards around Treviso, by which I mean literally through, they were racing along a track between rows of vines. It looked amazing.
For those interested, the men’s race was won by Matej Mohorič, Britain’s Connor Swift took Bronze. Wout van Aert might have won, he actually completed the course 2 mins quicker than Mohorič in terms of moving time, but lost 10 mins due to mechanical issues, so finished 8th. Kasia Niewiadoma from Poland rode solo to victory in the women’s race.
Earlier in the spring i took my bike for a two weeks tour of Greece. The weather wasn’t great. Still very much winter at the beginning of April.
So a much shorter route than planned saw me cycle from Athens to Nemea in the Peloponnese, stay one night at my friend’s winery after a lovely tasting with him ( Gaia, Yiannis Paraskevopoulos) . We also recorder a short episode for my podcast ( a shameless plug… "in the vineyard with " search for it on any platform)
Finishing on the island of Hydra before a return to Pireaus and the scariest bike ride in 20 years of cycling, back to the heart of Athens.
I wrote all about it in Crazy guy on a bike but here’s a few photos 
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