La Rioja's wine battle

La Rioja's wine battle
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By h.b. - Jun 6, 2011 - 1:19 PM
The annual festival takes place in June in the town of Haro

Photo EFE

Thousands of litres of wine are needed every June for the San Pedro festival which is held towards the end of the month in the town of Haro, in the north west of the wine region of La Rioja. Some of it is drunk, but the vast majority is used as ammunition for Haro’s ‘Batalla del Vino’, the ‘Wine Battle’ which is held every June 29.

The day begins early in the morning with a romería up to the Riscos of Bilibio, some 6 kilometres outside Haro, where the town’s flag is raised above a chapel which stands there at the top of a crag. After a mass, the battle commences, when some 40,000 litres of red wine are chucked, squirted and sprayed by the two groups of opposing teams.

Some are armed with wineskins, others with giant water pistols or even buckets and plastic bins, and the teams’ white clothing is soon stained the purple colour of La Rioja wine.

This peaceful battle, which now holds status as a Fiesta of National Tourist Interest, is said to have its origins in a conflict centuries ago for possession of the Bilibio hills between the people of Haro and neighbouring Miranda del Ebro. Tradition has it that Haro must raise its flag above the chapel every June 29 in order to retain possession of the Riscos.

The chapel which stands here was built in honour of San Felices de Bilibio, a hermit who lived there in the fifth Century BC. Pilgrimages to the cave where he was buried began after his death, and it’s thought that the pilgrims held their first wine battle in the late 19th Century. La Rioja newspaper made reference to wine being thrown during the romería in an article published on June 29, 1898, and in the newspaper’s coverage of the fiesta in 1918 their reporter said, ‘one man waters with wine the heads of those nearby’.

La Rioja first dubbed the event the ‘Batalla del Vino’ in 1949. It was granted status as a Fiesta of National Tourist Interest in March 2011.

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