Wine Festival

Around September, lively festivals take place all around Spain, many of which are wine harvest celebrations. La Rioja’s wine battle in Haro and the Vendimia Festival in Jerez de la Frontera are famous examples, but they’re not the only ones.

In the town of Jumilla, in the autonomous community of Murcia, a wine harvest festival is held each year that brings residents together to celebrate the crushing of the grapes, the inauguration of the wine fountain, the offering of the grapes and the first grape juice offered to the Niñico de las uvas (the affectionate name local residents use to refer to a statue of a young Jesus holding grapes) in the convent of Santa Ana del monte.

In Cordoba’s scenic countryside, Montilla throws its annual town festival, an exciting fiesta that has been officially classified by Spain as an event of special touristic interest. The festival gives way to flamenco events and the popular Fiesta de la Tapa, in which venenciadores(expert wine pourers who draw wine from barrels with a long handled dipper known as a venencia and serve it directly into cups from incredible heights) and toneleros (barrel makers) participate in competitions.

In Toro, the parade of carts that gathers within the town square represents the joyous celebration of completed work and it offers a vibrant setting for traditional music and exquisite food items such as torrezno, torrijas, and fried peppers.

Wine harvest festival traditions are particularly unique on the Canary Islands. In the town of Icod de los vinos, just north of Tenerife, thunderous noise fills the island air every November 30th when the town’s young people slide down hills on old barrel bottoms as if they were sledding. The kids make more noise on the same day by dragging empty cans and other metal objects in the so-called La Cacharrera event, recalling a time when bodega owners in the Orotava Valley would take their wine barrels into town to wash them in the sea water.

When exploring the Spanish landscape in the beginning of autumn, it’s hard not to find some festival celebrating wine and the wine harvest season. Some call Spain la piel de toro (the skin of the bull), in reference to an old Tartessian legend, but many others prefer to call it el odre de vino (the wineskin).