Alkuviini — Natural Wine Specialists
Alkuviini is the natural wine importer that helped shape Helsinki's scene from the supply side. Their tasting events connect producers directly with Helsinki's wine community — no middleman, no corporate filter. The name combines 'alku' (beginning/origin) with 'viini' (wine), a nod to their philosophy: go to the source. Part of the Let Me Wine universe that includes Toni Feri and Lauri Kähkönen, ex-Grön sommeliers who deliberately rejected wine snobbery. Their philosophy: 'When it gets too serious, we don't want to do this anymore.'
How to Complete
4 steps to experience this fully
- 🍷 Log Memory
📍 WHERE: Hakaniemi market square (Hakaniemen torikatu) — the kiosk is a freestanding structure at the centre of the square. Arrive from the Hakaniemi metro station exit and you'll see it immediately. No sign-up, no reservation.
💡 WHAT: You're standing on Helsinki's most political square. Since 1897 this was a working-class market — factory workers from the Sörnäinen harbour docks came here to buy food. The Market Hall behind you opened in 1914 as 'the largest and most modern in all of Europe.' Every May Day, the workers' march still begins here. Unions, the Social Democratic Party, the Left Alliance — their offices all surround this square. Then in 2023, two former sommeliers from Grön (Helsinki's Michelin-starred vegetable restaurant) parked a natural wine kiosk right in the middle of it and started pouring orange wine by the glass. Helsinki didn't have this before.
🎯 HOW: Before ordering anything, do one full lap of the kiosk. Look at what's around it — the red-brick 1914 Market Hall, the tram lines, the apartment blocks. Then look back at the kiosk with its 100-seat terrace. That contrast — 127 years of workers' markets, one natural wine importer with no tolerance for wine snobbery — IS the experience.
🔄 BACKUP: The kiosk is seasonal (May through summer). If it's not open, the Market Hall directly behind is open Mon-Sat year-round and has its own character.
- 🍷 Log Memory
📍 WHERE: The bar counter inside or at the terrace — both serve by the glass. Weekdays open 11:00–23:00, weekends 09:00–23:00. Seasonal: opens late May (around Ascension Day), weather permitting.
💡 WHAT: Orange wine is white grape juice that stayed on the skins — same way red wine gets its colour, just with white grapes. Leave it on the skins for days or months, and you get amber, tannic, oxidative wine that tastes nothing like what people expect from a white. Most wine bars have one or two options. Alkuviini has the widest orange wine selection in Finland, all available by the glass. This is the only place in the country where you can line them up side by side and taste how skin-contact time changes everything. Toni Feri (co-founder, ex-sommelier at Grön when it earned its Michelin star) and Lauri Kähkönen (Grön co-founder) started importing these wines in 2017 under the name Let Me Wine — 'feeling rather punk' with no import experience, visiting tiny wine fairs in Europe that most importers skip. They only work with producers who produce very small amounts per year. When a batch runs out, it's gone. Their philosophy: 'When it gets too serious, we don't want to do this anymore.'
🎯 HOW: Ask for three orange wines by the glass — one light skin-contact, one medium, one extended. Tell the bartender you want to taste the spectrum. Then ask which producer they fought hardest to get. There will be a story.
🔄 BACKUP: If the orange wine rotation is thin that day, ask for any natural wine made from a grape variety you've never heard of. That's the point of this importer.
- 🍷 Log Memory
📍 WHERE: The Alkuviini kiosk terrace — Hakaniemen torikatu, 00530 Helsinki. Check their Instagram (@alkuviini) before you go; they announce events 3–7 days in advance.
💡 WHAT: Alkuviini runs summer programming that turns a 127-year-old working-class market square into an ad-hoc cultural venue. DJ sets, vintage clothing markets, live cultural events — all outdoors on the terrace, all centred on natural wine. The square gets full afternoon and evening sun. Before Hakaniemi, Alkuviini had been a nomad: they'd previously popped up at Kaivopuisto park, the Kult-club, and a basement on Harju 8. Every venue was temporary, which trained them to build community fast. This kiosk is their most permanent home yet, and they use it.
🎯 HOW: Check @alkuviini on Instagram for the next event. If nothing's scheduled, walk across to the Hakaniemi Market Hall (open Mon–Sat) and spend 20 minutes inside — the 1914 iron-and-glass interior, the fish stalls, the cheese sellers — then come back to the kiosk for another glass. You've just done the full Hakaniemi loop that locals have been doing for 111 years, except now with better wine.
🔄 BACKUP: No event? Ask the staff what's coming up. They'll tell you. Or simply sit on the terrace — there are ~100 seats and the square is one of Helsinki's best people-watching spots. Helsinki trams pass on three sides of this square.
- 🍷 Log Memory
📍 WHERE: At the bar — any conversation with staff counts.
💡 WHAT: Let Me Wine (the import arm of Alkuviini) built their portfolio by attending tiny wine fairs in Europe where major importers don't bother showing up. That's how you find producers who make 2,000 bottles a year and ship them to a single country. Some of those producers are now so sought-after internationally that Helsinki is one of only a handful of cities outside the winery's own country where you can taste them by the glass.
🎯 HOW: Ask the bartender: 'Which wine on the list right now almost didn't make it to Finland?' Or: 'What's the most limited thing you have open today?' They'll tell you the producer's name, where the vineyard is, how small the batch was. This is the conversation Toni and Lauri built the whole company to have. They visited those producers personally — the story IS the sourcing. Whatever the answer is, order a glass of it.
🔄 BACKUP: If staff are too busy to chat, pick up a bottle from the retail selection. Read the label. Alkuviini's imports go through Alko (Finland's state monopoly) for retail, but the bar has bottles you won't find anywhere else.