Haro Wine Festival - Batalla de Vino (Battle of Wine)
Haro in Northern Spain, is in the middle of the wine growing
region of La Rioja, and home to the annual Haro Wine Festival and the
Batalla del Vino. Where the locals all arm themselves with water
pistols, and splash each other with tens of thousands of litres of wine,
turning everything purple.
Spain is not short of crazy festivals, but what seems silly to some, is part of the culture and traditional to others.
Of course, there are those that staunchly support this festival just for the wine - owe but for the wine.
Spain is not short of crazy festivals, but what seems silly to some, is part of the culture and traditional to others.
Of course, there are those that staunchly support this festival just for the wine - owe but for the wine.
La Rioja Wine
I remember first hearing about Rioja in a Chinese restaurant in
Nottingham England. A friend at the time was having a surprise
anniversary bash for his wife, and I had drove up from London and sat at
a large round table, set for five couples, three of which were already
there.
We had something in common, all trying to avoid sounding pretentious, admitting that we all liked French wine, and decided to order a couple of bottles of Chateau Lafite Rothschild. The absent seats were filled by a couple who made an entrance, fresh in from Tenerife, suntans and blinged out.
A forty-something fella, accompanied by a rather younger provocatively dressed twenty-something blond – we tried to ignore the cliché, but the first thing they did was spin the centerpiece, grab one of the bottles (we had opened to breath), and splash it into their glasses, without a breath downed the wine and declared, to the rest of the table “it aint quite a Rioja but it will have to do”
Now there is Rioja and there’s Rioja – I later discovered.
We had something in common, all trying to avoid sounding pretentious, admitting that we all liked French wine, and decided to order a couple of bottles of Chateau Lafite Rothschild. The absent seats were filled by a couple who made an entrance, fresh in from Tenerife, suntans and blinged out.
A forty-something fella, accompanied by a rather younger provocatively dressed twenty-something blond – we tried to ignore the cliché, but the first thing they did was spin the centerpiece, grab one of the bottles (we had opened to breath), and splash it into their glasses, without a breath downed the wine and declared, to the rest of the table “it aint quite a Rioja but it will have to do”
Now there is Rioja and there’s Rioja – I later discovered.
Haro Wine Festival
Researching for this Lens, I asked my significant other if she had
heard of any crazy weird or strange holidays festivals that was going
down in June, she replied “yes euro 2012 football/Soccer” – So no then.My neighbour on the other hand, couldn’t wait to tell me about his home town of Haro in the Rioja wine region. He jumps up, and goes next door, and reappears, grinning shinny eyed, clutching two bottles of wine he had made himself, declaring this is the wine he used to throw about in the Batalla de Vino (Battle of Wine) I remember most of what he said..
Fiesta del Vino de Haro the 29th of June is penned in on all the calendars of this town, celebrating San Pedro and as usual in a Spanish fiesta it has parades and a battle.
The village parades up to the small chapel with the statue of San Felices led by the mayor on horseback, after placing the city’s flag at the top of the rock, the battle commences all the way back to the Town’s Bullring.
There are windmills, but no Don Quixote, as arms spin around throwing buckets of vino on each other, and some stories are best left unmentioned. When the levels of testosterone and home brew splash about, especially when a quaff of suppressed rivalry rears its head.
This all sounds a bit silly, but watching my neighbour tell his stories with passion and a nostalgic tear, coupled with the fact that I have been to a lot of Spanish fiestas, I would suggest it’s worth a visit.
Cheers!
The wine's not just for throwing!
Photo with permission from http://www.wine-fight.com/the-history/
Time to dry off
This is a file from Wikimedia Commons
Drain and add 750ml of water and blend until pureed for about 2 minutes.
Terra Mítica is a theme park located in Benidorm/Finestrat and
divided into 5 themed zones: Egypt, Greece, Iberia, Rome and the
Islands.The park has plenty of scary high altitude, breakneck speed
rides with names like Titánide, SynKope and Inferno.
Terra Natura is parkland next to Terra Mitica and has over 1,500
animals from 200 different species, 50 in serious danger of extinction.
The park also has over 2,500 examples of more than 160 species of trees,
shrubs and ground cover plants.
The first time I tried Moules Marinière was upstairs in the
French Horn Upton, Newark, Nottinghamshire in the 80's. I had never
tried them before that because I was a little apprehensive, I'm glad the
French Horn did a good job, as they have been a favourite for years.
Eventually the Fire Brigade turned up and extinguished the fire. The
culprit of the fire, well the clue is in the shop owners mouth, a
cigarette. Probably thrown from a window from the apartment block above,
apparently this happens often.
After the crane had gone, and several days later, the home owner who
was absent at the time didn’t seemed too fazed with what had happened,
but he did get a little irritable when I gave him my card and asked if I
could give him a quotation for the rebuild. A-B-C.
I was called to a job after the whole garden had cracked and the
patio around the swimming pool had collapsed, next door’s ended up down
the mountain after a heavy rain.
What really happened was the pool guy left a hose on filling the
pool and it over ran all night, washed away the mountain. The whole
garden had dropped and the owners had people booked into the house for
the summer, so he asked us to re-concrete and tile it as if nothing had
happened.
The owner had a company build a stack of concrete blocks underneath
on top of the collapsing stone hill. They managed to go through the
summer without any more movement and then got locked into a legal battle
that lasted years with the original Spanish builder. His attitude was,
by the time this goes to court he will be retired.
Speaking of Spanish waiters, these guys risked holding up a ladder
so one of them could climb up to change a light bulb, it swung
dangerously close to the stairwell window which had a fifty foot drop on
the other side. So there’s the answer to that one, it takes four
waiters, three to hold the ladder.
This bus was on its way to the popular tourist attraction village of
Guadalest, inland on the Costa Blanca Spain. The tourists complained of
the smoke in the back from the engine but the driver wouldn’t pull
over, he eventually did and managed to get everyone out of the bus
before it went up in flames. The company, Green tours is no longer
running trips.
I ran out my apartment block late one night to watch a car full of
youths chasing down a lad on foot, they drove around the car park at
speed chasing him and smashing twenty three cars. The runner hid behind
the car in the picture above, so they rammed it. He took a trip to the
hospital and a few miles down the road they were apprehended and jailed.
Image ShearArt February
