Haro Ready to Rumble? Getting Doused (and later, Soused) in/on Rioja
It may not compare, in terms of sheer saturation, with Bunyol, Catalunya’s now-famous Tomatina festival—in which participants hurtle ripe tomatoes at each other to the point of marination—but Rioja’s Batalla del Vino, or Battle of Wine, which takes place on a craggy hillside about 6km outside the town of Haro every June 29, has the all-important advantage of generating a drinkable fusillade: wine, of course.
Ostensibly a quasi-religious and friendly re-enactment of a legendary feud between Haro and a neighboring town, Miranda de Ebro, on occasion of Haro’s festival of San Pedro, the Batalla del Vino is widely accepted as really just an excuse to get doused and silly, and later in the day—for those of drinking age—seriously soused.
Check out Melanie Grayce West’s commentary on the annual wine melee last week in the Wall Street Journal , as well as the comments of Dr. Vino.