Requena claims the oldest vendimia festival in Spain, running since 1948, in the Utiel-Requena appellation inland from Valencia — high plateau country planted overwhelmingly with bobal, a thick-skinned red grape long used for bulk and blending and now being taken seriously on its own.
The festival brings parades, the treading of the first grapes, a wine queen, and the opening of the town's medieval underground cellars.
No attendance figure is recorded here in this pass.
The timing is the point for anyone planning a harvest trip: at 700 metres on a hot inland plateau, Requena picks earlier than Rioja or Ribera, so its festival falls at the turn of August and September rather than in late September. Requena is an hour from Valencia and on the high-speed line.
PlanningA window at the turn of August and September — earlier than the northern harvests.