Rioja in May: Poppies, Vineyards & €3 Wine
One of the best parts of spending 30 days hiking across an entire country is getting to watch the landscape slowly reinvent itself.
On the Camino, Spain never stays the same for long. One day you’re climbing mountain passes, the next you’re wandering through rolling farmland, medieval villages, or bustling cities. Just when you think you’ve figured out the scenery, the Camino changes the script.
And then came the Rioja region. Suddenly, the trail opened into wine country.
The region of Rioja may be one of Spain’s smallest —but it carries its weight when it comes to wine, producing roughly 20% of all wine in Spain. Even better for pilgrims, the Camino Francés takes you right through it, with roughly 37 miles of the route crossing the region over the course of a few unforgettable days.
For miles, we walked dirt paths surrounded by vineyards stretching farther than we could see. Rows of vines rolled over hillsides in every direction, occasionally interrupted by sleepy villages, old churches, and wineries.
Why Hiking Rioja in May Feels Extra Special
As if endless vineyards weren’t enough, hiking through Rioja in May came with an unexpected bonus, bright red poppies everywhere. Seeing these flowers along the trail were high on my list.
Against the green vineyards and the Camino path, the bursts of red somehow made the miles feel even more alive.
The Camino’s Most Iconic (and Slightly Questionable) Wine Stop
No Rioja section of the Camino would feel complete without mentioning one of its most iconic pilgrim traditions: the famous wine fountain at Bodegas Irache Wine Fountain.
Located just outside the town of Estella, this famous stop sits directly along the Camino at the historic Bodegas Irache winery. Pilgrims have been passing through this area for centuries, and the tradition traces back to Benedictine monks at the nearby monastery who cared for weary travelers on the Camino. Wine was once offered exhausted pilgrims making the long journey to Santiago. Today’s fountain is a modern tribute to that tradition, first installed in the 1990s, and remains the only free wine fountain on the entire Camino Francés. Every morning, the winery fills it with young red wine for passing pilgrims.
Part of the tradition…pilgrims drink from their scallop shells. It has become one of those classic “you have to do it” Camino moments.
In our case, it was about 9:00 AM when we arrived which felt way too early for red wine. Naturally, we still participated.
And while we fully appreciated the tradition, let’s just say no one was confusing it with the fantastic Rioja we had been drinking after dinner. The wine itself wasn’t particularly memorable, but the experience absolutely was. Because sometimes on the Camino, it’s less about what you’re drinking and more about the fact that you’re standing on the side of a trail in Spain, sipping free wine from a pilgrim shell before breakfast with complete strangers.
