Haro: Capital of Rioja wine

Hi friends,

One of the autonomous communities of my beloved Spain that I have visited the least is La Rioja, cradle of one of the most important wine regions of Spain and in particular I was able to enjoy yesterday afternoon a fleeting visit of this community and in particular the city of Haro, which is called the capital of Rioja Wine.

Yesterday, after finishing my working day in a laboratory in this town dedicated to the analysis of wines and other alcoholic beverages, I walked through the narrow streets of this small town of about 11,000 inhabitants.

Perhaps because we are still in the spring and I don't know about the grape harvest season or because of the time of day, the streets of the old town were a bit empty, which is more comfortable to take some pictures because you avoid having to explain why you are taking pictures of everything in the surroundings.

I began my tour very close to the hotel where I had stayed the night before in the Plaza de la Paz where the love and devotion for wine can be felt in the facade of the town hall itself where a unique decoration with barrels with the names of the main wineries established in the town.

Entering the porch of the town hall and in order to see if they were full barrels that decorated the facade I was pleasantly surprised to find a set of old photographs taken several decades ago in the cellars of the town in which you could see photographs of the old cellars and also of the old masters winemakers who left a great legacy to future generations.

Urban Center (Urban art and sculptures around wine)

Satisfied to find the photographic exhibition, I was even happier when I turned my eyes to the right side and saw a large and very funny mural that also has wine as a protagonist. Specifically, it is a mural where you can see two drunks escorted by a good-natured policeman who is helping one of the drunks not to fall down.

However, you will see throughout the post that references in the form of urban art to wine and the grape harvest are a very employed theme. But not only did I come across street art that referenced wine or the grape harvest, I also came across some statues.

Specifically, one of the statues that caught my attention is this statue where you see 3 people (a man, a woman and a child) intertwined and each of them armed with a wineskin. For those who do not know what a wineskin is, it is an ancient container made of leather or other material that was used to store wine as if it were a canteen.

I say that they were armed, because this type of wineskin has an opening through which to drink, but in festivals, as is the wine festival of Haro, authentic battles are made wetting each other with the wine loaded in the wineskins.

Then, with the intention of getting to know the old part of the city, I went to the highest tower I saw in the place, which was the church of Santo Tomas.

But my intention was not to visit the church, as it was closed for the day, but to go just behind it where there is a viewpoint from which you can see the valley and mountains on the eastern slope of the city.

Capturing my attention, the complex of wineries that is in the lower part of the town, and, therefore, my little walk through the old town was extended to visit the winery area by a striking traffic circle where I saw some large sculptures that I could not differentiate correctly.

On my way to the winery area from the old town, as I had anticipated, I found a lot of very striking street art whose theme revolved around wine.

Being the most beautiful mural, the following one, where you see 3 people working on a machine related to the production of wine.

But on a comic level, this mural with beings designed in a very striking way, made me laugh out loud to see a sheep placed upside down with a plug coming out of its tail. Quite a stroke of genius because of the striking graffiti.

But in my tour to the wineries, urban art and wine did not stop accompanying me on my tour of the city, as another great mural referring to the god Bacchus in the park near the Cathedral.

Wineries

As I have been indicating throughout the post, the importance of wine and the grape harvest is breathed in every inch of the city and in the winery area the aroma of red wine is even more pronounced.

Next to the Winery Muga, one of the best known Rioja wines that I like the most, is the traffic circle that I saw from the viewpoint and from which I could not differentiate well the sculptures.

There are 3 sculptures (Farmer with a horse, woman with grapes and lying on vineyards, boy with a glass of wine and grapes) which in my head I interpreted with the following logic.

Farmer with a horse.

In the old days, plowing the land involved the use of horses or other draft animals. So I interpreted the sculpture as a tribute to those people who began to produce wine in the area, helped only by the strength of their animals to cultivate the vines.

And looking at the mount, I could see that it is full of vines, which at this time of the year do not have leaves yet, but I suppose that as the year progresses they will have leaves and later fruit.

Woman on the ground with grapes.

When I climbed to the top of the rotunda I could see that the woman had one of her hands stretched out on the ground and in the other hand she was holding some grapes.

Later, from another perspective, I could see that the woman was not lying directly on the ground, but was lying on some vines.

And it was then that I understood that the woman represents fertility and how fruit can be obtained from the ground, just as a child can only be obtained through a woman as a mother.

Child with a cup of wine and grapes.

I liked this statue the most. Not because I believe that a child should drink wine but because it represents the birth of wine through grapes.

Although, it also came to my mind a saying in Spain that only children and drunks tell the truth. But this explanation is a bit more ironic on my part.

Railroad and its importance in the region.

At the gates of the Muga winery and next to the traffic circle, a locomotive loaded with wooden vats caught my attention because of how well preserved this locomotive was with some decades on its wheels.

And the importance of the railroad for Haro, according to what I could learn, was capital. To be able to bring French oak barrels for aging wine was a point of reflection for the Rioja designation of origin and not least the possibility of being able to transport production throughout Spain and Europe.

Dinner with a Rioja wine

And after touring the city and seeing references to wine on every corner, a glass of wine before dinner was a must.

But with how tasty Rioja wine is, especially in the capital of wine, a second glass to accompany dinner was a must.

But there was no third, because more than one or two glasses of wine was already going to my head and today I had to work again.

I hope you liked my tour of Haro.

Best regards.