Bike Riding Through the Vineyards

Yesterday, I rented bikes with 5 friends and rode out to a 'Co-operative'. We filled up a plastic gas can type container with wine, carried it home in my backpack, and bottled it together that evening (Dom and I have a bottler and corks). It was so much fun! Perfect weather for a bike ride, I saw the sun set on the way home- beautiful views of Mt. Sainte Victoire, and the wine just tastes better when you've bottled it yourself. =) We had a little assembly line going of people pouring the wine (using a funnel) into the bottles that we had recycled, putting in on the corker mechanism, and then pushing down on the lever that fits the large cork into the small bottle neck. We peeled off the old labels and decorated the bottles with silver and gold pens. The Co-op is in the small town of Eguilles (right next-door to Aix- it's about 11 or 12 kilometers to get out there). It cost 11 euros for just under 8 bottles of wine, and it wasn't heavy to carry home on my back at all because it was just the liquid in the plastic jug and no glass bottles. I want to do this with all future visitors!