Venue
about 6 km from Haro, 26200 Haro, La Rioja, Spain
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Haro Wine Battle (Batalla del Vino) guide
Red Rioja on the crags of Bilibio.
In short
The Batalla del Vino takes place every year on 29 June, the feast of San Pedro, near Haro in Rioja Alta. It suits travellers ready to walk out in white, hear mass at the hermitage and get soaked in red wine. The battle crowns several days of fiestas and beds go early, so book well ahead and pack clothes you can lose.
Once a year the crags of Bilibio, on the edge of Spain's Rioja Alta, turn purple. The Batalla del Vino is a pilgrimage that became a wine fight: thousands of people dressed in white walk out to the hermitage of a sixth-century saint near Haro, hear mass, and then drench one another in red Rioja until the supply runs dry.
It belongs to the town first. The battle crowns Haro's late-June fiestas for San Juan, San Felices and San Pedro, the patron saint, and it has never shed its religious frame and the service at the hermitage still comes before the first drop flies.
Visitors come for the chaos and stay for the cellars. Haro is one of the great wine towns of Rioja, which makes this the rare fiesta where the ammunition is worth tasting.
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Key Facts & Stats:
Where: Haro, Spain
Venue: Riscos de Bilibio
Held: Every year
Type of event: Cultural Events, Social Festivals, Wine and Beer Festivals
Currency: Euro (EUR, €)
Time zone: Central European Time, UTC+1 (UTC+2 in summer); Canary Islands UTC+0
Language: Spanish (Castilian); co-official Catalan, Galician, Basque
Map
Getting around
Hotels near the venue fill up around the event dates.
White clothes, red scarf and shoes you can throw away
The uniform is white from collar to shoes, with a red scarf knotted at the neck. Treat every piece as disposable, because red Rioja does not wash out.
- Shoes
- old trainers with a deep tread. Rock and grass turn slick within minutes.
- Eyes
- swimming goggles. Wine in the face stings more than you would expect.
- Phone
- a sealed pouch or waterproof case, or leave it in your room.
- Underneath
- swimwear, so you can peel off the worst layers afterwards.
- In the bag
- a towel, sunscreen, sunglasses and a light top for the cool walk out before dawn.
Carrying your own wine, without glass bottles
Arrive empty-handed and you become a target with nothing to fire back. Most people carry their own wine and something to throw it with. The usual arsenal:
- a bota, the leather wineskin, for close work
- buckets and jugs for a proper drenching
- water pistols and farm sprayers, including backpack models, for range
Glass of any kind is banned on the hill, so decant into plastic before you leave town. Supplies dry up by late morning. Nobody hoards; the point is to be generous with it.
Water, sun protection and valuables on the crags
By the time the battle ends the late-June sun is high, and the crags offer little shelter from it. Carry water and drink it between rounds, since a mouthful of wine is no substitute.
Leave passports, cash and anything you care about in your room. A card and a little money in a zipped pocket is plenty. Buy travel insurance before the trip, as you would for any rough, crowded event.
The crowd is good-natured but dense. Agree on a meeting point in Haro in case your group gets split up, and do not bother protesting a soaking: anyone on the hill is fair game, and complaining only draws more fire.
What happens on the day
- Before 07:00
The town sets off
Groups leave Haro on foot, in vans and on tractor-drawn trailers. In 2026 the first were on the road at 6:00.
- 08:30 to 09:00
The mounted procession
The mayor rides out at the head of the official procession towards the Riscos de Bilibio. The exact time shifts from year to year.
- At the hermitage
Banner and mass
The mayor fixes a banner on the crags and mass is said at the chapel of San Felices. In 2026 the service was moved earlier because crowds had started fighting before sunrise.
- After mass
The rocket
A rocket opens the battle. By about 10:30 most containers are empty.
- Midday
Plaza de la Paz and the bullring
The purple column walks back into town. The party carries on in the square, and young cattle are let loose in the bullring for anyone brave enough to share the sand.
Planning several days in Haro for the San Pedro fiestas
The battle is the climax of several days of fiestas, so plan for several days. A few people camp; pack only what you would happily carry uphill in the half-dark.
Down by the railway, the Barrio de la Estación holds a remarkable row of old wine houses: R. López de Heredia, CVNE, Muga, La Rioja Alta and Bodegas Bilbaínas among them. Each keeps its own hours for visits, so reserve tastings before you travel. It is the best way to taste the wine.
San Felices of Bilibio and how the wine battle began
The crags were holy ground long before they were a battlefield. San Felices of Bilibio, remembered as the teacher of San Millán, lived as a hermit among the rocks in the sixth century and was buried in a cave there. Pilgrims kept walking out from Haro for hundreds of years, and early in the 1700s the first official chapel went up on the spot.
Nobody can say exactly when wine joined the pilgrimage. One story credits a single villager who doused a neighbour in high spirits. Another describes a kind of wine baptism at the chapel that slowly turned rowdy. Either way, the soaking was not to every taste, and for some years attendance fell away, with women in particular staying at home. Then in 1949 Enrique Hermosilla Díez wrote about the Battle of Wine for a Rioja newspaper, the first time the fight was named in print, and the crowds returned.
The ammunition says something about the place. Haro is one of the great towns of Rioja Alta, and the red flung across the hillside comes from the same country that fills the cellars by the station. Throwing the local product at your neighbours is a kind of boast. The town makes it every year.
Getting there
Flying in
Most international visitors land in Bilbao, which has the widest choice of routes. Logroño-Agoncillo is a smaller regional airport closer to Haro.
Bilbao to Haro
Driving is simplest. Without a car, take a coach from the Bilbao Intermodal station, the city's main bus hub, straight to Haro.
From Logroño
Renfe trains and Jiménez Movilidad coaches cover the 42 km to Haro in under an hour. Haro's station is in the Barrio de la Estación, a short walk from the old bodegas.
Out to Bilibio
The Riscos de Bilibio are about 6 km north of town. Walking out with the crowd is part of the ritual. If anyone drives, settle who stays sober before you leave.
Where to stay during the festival
Haro has a small stock of hotels and the late-June fiestas fill them months ahead, so book the moment your dates are fixed.
If the town is full, Logroño is the fallback, but on battle morning you want to wake up in Haro. Arriving a day or two early lets you see the town before it turns purple, and a clean day afterwards leaves time for the wine houses by the station.
Weather and what to pack
Late June in La Rioja is warm and mostly dry. Logroño, the nearest station with long records, averages a daytime high of 27.5°C and a low of 13.6°C in June, with about 45 mm of rain over five or six wet days (1991-2020 normals).
The early start on the crags can be cool, and by the walk back the sun is strong.
Worth packing
- A white T-shirt and trousers you will never wear again
- A red neckerchief, the local custom
- A bota, bucket or water pistol if you plan to throw
- Sunscreen and a hat for the walk back
- Swimming goggles to keep wine out of your eyes
- A sealed bag with dry clothes left in your room
Car hire in Haro
Airport transfer to Haro Wine Battle (Batalla del Vino)
Met at arrivals at Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) and driven door to door to Riscos de Bilibio.
- Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) → Riscos de Bilibio
- 321 km · 3 hr 50 min
Restaurants and food in Spain
Places to eat in Spain before or after the celebrations.
Ganbara
Calle San Jerónimo 21, 20003 Donostia San Sebastián, Spain
Cuisine:BasquePintxos
- Dine-in
- Bar
- Counter seating
El Rinconcillo
Calle Gerona 40, 41003 Seville, Spain
Cuisine:AndalusianTapas
- Dine-in
- Bar
- Counter seating
El Celler de Can Roca
Carrer de Can Sunyer 48, 17007 Girona, Spain
Cuisine:Contemporary CatalanTasting menu
- Dine-in
Sobrino de Botín
Calle de los Cuchilleros 17, 28005 Madrid, Spain
Cuisine:CastilianTraditional Spanish
- Dine-in
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
General
Yes. English-language listings use San Vino Wine Festival, Haro Wine Festival and Haro Wine Battle more or less at random. In Haro it is simply the Batalla del Vino, the wine-soaked part of the pilgrimage to San Felices de Bilibio on San Pedro's day.
Around 30,000 litres in 2026, of which roughly 10,000 came from Haro's town council and the rest was carried up by participants. The total keeps growing: an estimate for 2007 put it at about 20,000 litres.
No. The midday event is a release of young bulls and cattle into the ring, and the soaked crowd shares the sand with them. The animals are not killed. It is still risky for the people in the ring, so newcomers usually watch from behind the barriers.
He leads the procession out of town on horseback, climbs to the chapel of San Felices and fixes a banner at the top of the rocks before mass is said. The battle waits for him and for the end of the service.
In stages. The pilgrimage of San Felices was named a festival of tourist interest in 1965, a title confirmed in 1980. A bid for national status failed in 1988 before La Rioja's government granted it in 1998. In 2011 the battle became a festival of international tourist interest, the highest rating a Spanish fiesta can hold.
San Asensio, also in La Rioja, has staged a battle with claret since 1977, and its 30th edition in 2007 drew more than a thousand people. Jumilla takes a gentler line with its Great Wine Parade on 15 August, where floats and music come with wine for the crowd.
Buñol has La Tomatina, a street battle fought with tomatoes. In Ibi, Els Enfarinats pelt each other with flour and eggs. Haro is the only one of the three where the ammunition is worth drinking.
Booking
About 6,000 joined in during 2026, a big turnout for a town of Haro's size. Visitors now come from all over the world, yet the morning still follows local custom, from the mounted procession to the mass at the hermitage.
Families & accessibility
Yes, and it has run since 2004. On 26 or 27 June, between 10:00 and 11:00, children gather in the Plaza de la Paz and are handed containers of red liquid. They walk a short pilgrimage to the fairground, make an offering to the patron saint, fight their battle and finish with chocolate and biscuits.
Getting there
Not on the crags. Once the rocket goes up, everyone within reach of a bucket is fair game, onlookers included. To stay clean, skip the hill, let the crowd come back to you and join the celebrations in the Plaza de la Paz around midday.