Haro
La Rioja · La Rioja
DO CavaDOCa Rioja12.167inhabitants
1040first mention
1710wine documented
A town of La Rioja beside the Ebro and the Tirón, with its historic Barrio de la Estación of bodegas. Its name is said to derive from the Latin faru (lighthouse or watchtower); the area belonged to the Berones and there was a Roman hill fort on the crags of Bilibio.
First mention: In 1040 King García Sánchez III of Pamplona, “of Nájera”, gave his wife Estefanía “Bilibium cum Faro” in a marriage-settlement charter, the first documented reference to Haro.
The legend
18th century (pilgrimage); 1949 (current name)The San Felices pilgrimage that ended in a Wine Battle
Every 29 June, Saint Peter's Day, the people of Haro (jarreros) climb to the Riscos de Bilibio, where according to tradition the hermit San Felices (5th-6th century) lived and died. The popular version says that Haro had to plant its banner there every year so as not to lose the crags to Miranda de Ebro, and that the wine thrown recalls those disputes. The documented history is more modest: the town council agreed to build a hermitage at Bilibio in 1710, and the organised pilgrimage probably dates from then. After Mass, the pilgrims' lunch turned into wine drenchings that the local press was already reporting between 1898 and 1932. The name ‘Batalla del Vino’ (Wine Battle) appears for the first time in 1949, in an article in the newspaper La Rioja.
Alive today: It is Haro's best-known festival: thousands of people climb to the Riscos de Bilibio with wineskins, buckets and sprayers and drench each other in red Rioja after Mass at the hermitage. It has been a Festival of National Tourist Interest since 2011. Haro is one of the centres of the DOCa Rioja and preserves the Barrio de la Estación, with century-old bodegas still in operation.
Wineries and their wines
- Viña Bosconia
- Viña Cubillo
- Viña Tondonia
- Viña Zaconia
- Corona
- Cune Ecológico
- Cune Reserva
- Imperial
- Monopole Clásico
- Real de Asúa
- Gran Reserva 890
- Gran Reserva 904
- Viña Alberdi Selección Especial
- Viña Arana Gran Reserva
- Viña Ardanza
- Aro
- Conde de Haro Reserva
- Conde de Haro Rosé
- Flor de Muga Blanco
- Flor de Muga Rosé
- Muga
- Muga Blanco
- Muga Rosado
- Muga Selección Especial
- Prado Enea Gran Reserva
- Torre Muga
Wine towns nearby