How Rioja Became the Toast of New York’s World Cup Summer

Behind the Bottle

Inside the watch party series that turned Mercado Little Spain into the city’s unofficial home for soccer, tapas, and Spain’s most celebrated wine.

Rioja × Mercado Little Spain Campaign Recap

For sixteen matches this summer, the energy at Hudson Yards had nothing to do with shopping and everything to do with soccer. Inside Mercado Little Spain, giant projection screens lit up over a room packed with jerseys, flags, and the unmistakable buzz of a crowd watching the World Cup together — and at the center of it all was a glass of Rioja.

The Rioja × Mercado Little Spain Summer Futbol Club Watch Party Series set out to do something ambitious: make DOCa Rioja synonymous with one of the biggest sporting events on the planet, in one of the most talked-about Spanish destinations in America. By the time the final whistle blew on the campaign, nearly 10,000 fans had walked through the doors, and Rioja’s name had traveled a lot farther than Hudson Yards.

Turning a Market Into a Match-Day Destination

Rioja didn’t just sponsor a watch party — it built one from the ground up. The brand funded the installation of full projection and broadcast technology so every one of the sixteen matches played out on a big screen, created a custom Rioja Wine Bar inside the venue, and wove its branding into every corner of the experience: signage, digital displays, menus, tastings, and more.

To make the experience unmistakably Spanish, Mercado curated a tasting menu of eight pintxos, each paired with a different Rioja. Add in influencer visits and social media collaborations, and the result was less “sponsored activation” and more genuine neighborhood gathering spot — one where the wine happened to be exceptional.

The Word Got Out — Fast

Mercado Little Spain quickly became one of New York’s go-to spots for World Cup viewing, and the press took notice. Word spread through the outlets New Yorkers actually read for where to go — the New York Post, Eater New York, Condé Nast Traveler, Yahoo! Creators — and kept traveling internationally, landing coverage in Spain and across Latin America.

Prime Time on the Small Screen

The biggest surprise for a lot of Rioja fans? Seeing the brand pop up on live television. Mercado Little Spain was featured as a gathering place for Spanish supporters across major World Cup broadcasts on CBS, NBC, Telemundo, and Spain’s RTVE — and Rioja branding rode along with the crowd shots, appearing in live footage seen by viewers on both sides of the Atlantic.

“Fox’s live crowd look-ins captured the energy of the room directly from Mercado Little Spain — Rioja glasses in hand, front and center.”

Landing inside live sports programming — one of the most valuable environments in all of advertising — meant Rioja wasn’t just a name on a bottle. It was part of the game-day ritual, broadcast into living rooms right alongside the match itself.

Why It Mattered

Big sporting events like the World Cup don’t come around often, and neither do venues as beloved as Mercado Little Spain. By putting Rioja at the heart of both, the campaign did more than sell wine for an afternoon — it reinforced Rioja’s standing as Spain’s leading wine region and tied the brand to everything people already associate with Spanish culture: good food, good company, and a reason to celebrate.

From a custom wine bar to a spot on network news, the Rioja × Mercado Little Spain partnership proved that a great match deserves a great glass of wine — and that the right pairing can travel a lot farther than the room it started in.

Filed under: Partnerships · Events · DOCa Rioja