San Martín in the Canary Islands: new wine, bodegas and roast chestnuts
11 November is St Martin's Day, and on La Palma it belongs to the new wine. On the eve, the night of 10 November, the casks are opened in the bodegas and this year's vintage is tasted for the first time. Roast chestnuts come with it, eaten around the fire to the sound of parranda music.
If you are on the islands now, there is somewhere to go this year too. On La Palma, Los Llanos de Aridane holds a San Martín evening at the Las Manchas wine house on the night of 13 November; on the 14th Fuencaliente and Breña Baja celebrate, and on the 15th it is the turn of the Los Llanos farmers' market and Breña Baja again. On Tenerife, La Laguna is already pouring the 2026 new wine on 26 November, and on the 28th La Matanza de Acentejo holds its chestnut festival. On Gran Canaria, Santa Brígida turns the whole of November into a month of wine.
One thing to watch out for. Over the weekend of 7 and 8 November, storm Bruna led several organisers to change their plans. Separately, some San Martín events on La Palma have moved to new dates. This article reflects what was published as of 9 November, so check the official pages linked below before you set off.
There is also a Hungarian thread to the story. St Martin was born in Savaria, in present-day Szombathely, Hungary, and in Hungary too his day brings roast goose with new wine, known as “Martin's glass”. According to ADER La Palma, the island's rural development association, La Palma is the only one of the Canary Islands that celebrates the “Hungarian” St Martin of Tours in this way.
The cask that takes an oath
On La Palma, San Martín is a cellar feast, not a church one. An educational programme of the Canary Islands Government describes it like this: on the night of 10 November, St Martin's Eve, the new wine is opened and the casks, large and small, are “sworn in” so the wine can be tasted. This is the jura de las pipas y las barricas.
The act itself is simple. The cask is drilled so the new wine gushes out. According to ADER La Palma, this oath, together with a blessing, has over time become a real ritual.
Meanwhile the cellar fills with parranda music and guitars, people recite verses, and the bucio, a conch-shell horn, sounds. On the table you will find roast chestnuts, pork, goat's cheese and chicharrones with gofio. The descriptions say all this happens in almost every bodega on the island, with family and friends.
The island's wine regulatory council, the DO La Palma, made the feast official in 1996, dedicating it to the island's growers and wineries, and has since held each edition in a different municipality. According to the council, today's Jura de la Pipa recreates the moment when the cellars used to be opened and the new wine tasted for the first time. This year's edition, the 29th, was announced for Barlovento on 8 November, linked to the town's farmers' and crafts market.
Why 11 November
The answer starts with the calendar, not the wine. According to ADER La Palma, from the 16th century onwards San Martín marked the economic year of the vineyard and was one of the key dates for farm contracts. This was when the contracts for leased vineyards were settled, when casks and the tithe were paid for, and when wine was sent as alms to monasteries and parishes.
There is written evidence of this. A notarial contract dated 17 November 1555, covering a vineyard in Los Galguitos, stipulated that the owner should be called to the wine press on St Martin's Day, because that was when the wine would be shared out. It is quoted from 16th-century notarial records in an opinion piece published in La Palma Ahora this year.
According to ADER, from then on the people of La Palma used this day to judge what their must had turned into, probably under the influence of the Flemish merchants who came to the island. In other words, it was also a day of reckoning: how much wine was whose, and how good it was.
Chestnuts, children and rattling tin
It is no accident that chestnuts go with the wine. According to ADER, on La Palma they are harvested from mid-October to mid-December, and at this time of year you can buy them at every market on the island. The chestnut tree was brought to the island by Portuguese and Galician settlers who arrived after the conquest.
Children have their own day too. On St Martin's Day, pupils at La Palma's schools take part in the Fuga de San Martín, spending the day outdoors with local food. They sing the well-known rhyme “San Martín, tirín tin tin, fuego a la castaña y mano al barril”, roughly: fire under the chestnuts, hands on the barrel.
In San Andrés y Sauces, the eve used to be noisy. Children dragged old bits of metal through the streets and carried hollowed-out chayotes lit by a candle. In local memory, this racket was the sign that the cellars had opened. The author of the local article adds that this is oral tradition and its history has yet to be traced.
Elsewhere the day means something else. According to ADER, in many places San Martín is pig-slaughtering time, and a Spanish proverb keeps the memory: “A todo cerdo le llega su sanmartín”, every pig gets its St Martin's Day. It is used figuratively too: sooner or later, everyone gets what they deserve.
What we cannot say for sure
Where the custom came from cannot be settled in a single sentence.
ADER La Palma is firm about it: San Martín was brought to the island by the Portuguese in the 16th century. A Portuguese link does make sense, because in Portugal 11 November is also tied to new wine, roast chestnuts and gatherings around the fire.
The La Palma Ahora article is more cautious. In its view, the island's ties with Portuguese settlers make an exchange of customs plausible, but that alone is not enough to establish where any particular local tradition came from.
We think the second reading is the safer one. The date is demonstrably there in the 16th-century records. Exactly where some parts of today's feast came from is an open question. The same goes for La Palma being the only island that celebrates this way: only ADER says so, and we have not found it in any other source.
This year's events on La Palma
These dates were listed on the organisers' official channels on 9 November.
Friday 13 November, from 8 pm, Los Llanos de Aridane: a San Martín evening at the Las Manchas wine house, the Casa Museo del Vino. The town council says it is about the first chestnuts and tasting the new wine, the way families and neighbours used to get together. There is an entry fee, paid on the door. Details on the town council's website.
Saturday 14 November, from 12 noon, Fuencaliente: the II Feria Gastronómica de San Martín on the town hall square. The island's events calendar lists it as a new date, so it is worth checking the La Palma events calendar as well.
Saturday 14 November, Breña Baja: from 7 pm, San Martín con Estrellas, a charity evening at the Sociedad Balcón Canario in Las Ledas in aid of the Padisbalta association, with tickets reserved in advance. On the same day the El Atajo walking club also celebrates San Martín with its supporters, after a morning walk.
Sunday 15 November, morning, Los Llanos de Aridane: the Castañazo de San Martín, with chestnuts, wine and parranda music, at the Mercadillo del Agricultor, the farmers' market. It was originally set for 8 November and, according to the events calendar, has been postponed to 15 November.
Sunday 15 November, from 2 pm, Breña Baja: the traditional San Martín lunch of the Antomara residents' association in San Antonio, for members and supporters, with advance registration.
The Breña Baja events are run by local associations, mainly for their members, with help from the town council. How to sign up is explained in the council's announcement.
For the rest of the island, see our La Palma guide, and if it starts to rain in the meantime, this one too.
New wine and chestnuts on Tenerife and Gran Canaria
In the north of Tenerife, the big night for opening the cellars is not San Martín but San Andrés: 29 November, its eve, when people in Icod de los Vinos slide down the steep streets on wooden boards. The new wine turns up earlier, though. As we wrote in our grape harvest article, in autumn it starts appearing in homes and guachinches, and many guachinches only stay open while the house wine lasts.
Thursday 26 November, La Laguna: Noche en Tinto around the Plaza de La Concepción, next to the Concepción church. According to the DO Tacoronte-Acentejo wine council, you can already taste the new wine of the 2026 vintage here. It is the high point of the November wine programme run jointly by the council and La Laguna town council, and you will find the full programme on the wine region's website. For the town itself, this article of ours should whet your appetite.
Saturday 28 November, from 8 pm, La Matanza de Acentejo: the Fiesta de la Castaña on the Plaza del Mercado, with live music, tapas and wine, according to the town council's poster.
If you want to dig deeper into Tenerife's wine culture, the Casa del Vino de Tenerife in El Sauzal is a cultural centre devoted to Canarian wine and local produce.
On Gran Canaria, Santa Brígida town council runs the Santa Brígida con Vinos programme from 1 to 29 November, with 18 events promoting the wines of the DO Gran Canaria. After 10 November, these are still to come, among others:
13 November: Vino, música y monólogos on the Calle Real, free entry,
20 November: Noches de Vino P'al Monte,
27 November: Noche de Vinos Villa de Santa Brígida,
29 November: an ethnographic route at the Caldera de Bandama (we wrote about the trail around the crater here).
Tickets and registration for the events with limited places are handled through the programme's website.
The other autumn chestnut festival, Los Finaos, has an article of its own, and we have gathered the rest of the islands' festivals in this overview.
After the storm: where to check for changes
Over the weekend of 7 and 8 November, the Canary Islands Government declared a wind alert for La Palma and for parts of El Hierro, La Gomera, Tenerife and Gran Canaria. According to a round-up by Diario de Avisos, on Tenerife the Tacoronte town council called off every event on the Sunday and kept its farmers' market closed too, while La Laguna suspended its own events.
On La Palma, the Los Llanos Castañazo will take place a week later according to the events calendar, and the Fuencaliente fair also has a new date. As for the Barlovento Jura de la Pipa, announced for 8 November, on the morning of 9 November we could not find a readable official statement saying whether it went ahead or was postponed. If you were planning to go, check the wine council's website and with Barlovento town council.
These are the places where the programme is updated first:
Los Llanos de Aridane: the town council's news,
La Palma as a whole: the island's events calendar,
Tenerife, Tacoronte-Acentejo: the wine region's website,
Gran Canaria, Santa Brígida: the Santa Brígida con Vinos website.
In short
On La Palma, the new wine is opened on the night of 10 November: the cask is drilled, and that is the jura de la pipa.
Since the 16th century the day has marked the vineyard's economic year, as a contract from 1555 shows.
It comes with roast chestnuts, parranda music and the bucio, and for schoolchildren, the Fuga de San Martín.
This year on La Palma you can celebrate on 13 November in Los Llanos, on the 14th in Fuencaliente and Breña Baja, and on the 15th in Los Llanos and Breña Baja.
On Tenerife, on 26 November in La Laguna and on the 28th in La Matanza; on Gran Canaria, in Santa Brígida until the end of November.
After the storm, check the organiser's website before you set off.
Sources: Gobierno de Canarias, Programa Enseñas: Celebraciones tradicionales, San Andrés (Tenerife) y San Martín (La Palma); ADER La Palma: Noviembre de castañas y vino nuevo en La Palma; La Palma Ahora (eldiario.es), opinion piece on San Martín (8 November 2026); Consejo Regulador de Vinos de La Palma, news and programme (2026); Ayuntamiento de Los Llanos de Aridane, news (4 and 6 November 2026); Agenda La Palma (CIT Insular La Palma); Ayuntamiento de Breña Baja, announcement (2026); Consejo Regulador D.O. Tacoronte-Acentejo, Noviembre Mes del Vino (2026); Ayuntamiento de La Matanza de Acentejo, poster (2026); Ayuntamiento de la Villa de Santa Brígida, Santa Brígida con Vinos 2026; Diario de Avisos (7 November 2026); Eduline (Hungarian St Martin's Day customs).
Cover photo (cropped): vineyard near Puntagorda, La Palma. Gerda Arendt, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
