2024 is shaping up to be a momentous year. Ainoa began its first commercial operations in 2014, so this year we will be celebrating 10 years in business. It has not always been easy, but when we step back and look at what has been accomplished, sometimes we have difficulty believing it ourselves. Just looking at 2023, we had some notable milestones.

Finnair. We began the year on a high note – 10 km high. In January 2023 our cloudberry wine, Kultainen (created especially for Finnair), became the first Finnish berry wine served on commercial flights - to rave reviews. While only available in business class on long-haul flights and in Finnair lounges, the supply quickly ran out, but not before it introduced many travelers to a unique flavor of Finland. We look forward to the opportunity to supply more wines in the future, wink wink @feelfinnair.
It was a good year in general for travelers to taste our wines, as they were also served on both Viking and Finnlines cruises.

Awards. 2023 was the best year yet for international awards for Nordic berry wines. Ainoa was awarded eight gold medals for 7 different wines. Suven Taika, Vaapukka & Kuningatar earned gold at the Vinalies Internationales in Bordeaux. Sametti & Kuningatar were awarded gold at the Concours International de Lyon, where Sametti was named the best spirit from Finland for the third year in a row. Kaamos was the only non-grape wine awarded a gold medal at the Mondial du Rosé competition in Provence for the second straight year. Kaste won its first ever gold medal at the Nordic Cider awards in Riga, and at the Vuoden Viini Kilpailu, Aho became our first wine to win a gold medal in Finland, where it was also named the best Finnish berry wine.

Ainoa Viive apple ciders flavored with the pressed berries we used to make our wines were a hugely successful addition to our product line in 2023.

Events. We enjoy going to festivals both to introduce our wines to new people and to connect with friends that we have met through the years. This past year we participated in tastings in Germany, France and Sweden as well as in Finland. Of special note were the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale (ASI) Annual meeting and the Nordic Sommelier Championships, both held in Helsinki in the summer and fall 2023, where we introduced top wine experts from around the world to Ainoa’s unique Forest wines. As is the case every year, we enjoyed being at the Craft Beer Helsinki and Viini & Ruoka events again. We were also thrilled by the reception we got at our first (but definitely not last) appearance in Grand Vin Helsinki, where our masterclass was one of the few that fully sold out. In Lapland, we couldn’t have asked for a better reception than we got at a couple of professional-only events we attended in the autumn. At the winery itself we had a quieter year, but the Pizza & Wine event we held in August with Pier Catering was so popular we hope to repeat it in the near future. When it is announced, sign up quickly to reserve your spot.

Restaurants. It was a difficult year for restaurants, and we were saddened to learn that some which we have worked with for so long closed their doors. We will miss Ravintola Aino, Hella & Huone, Toca & others. At the same time, we are also glad that our wines have become such an integral part of the experience of so many restaurants across Finland, and we are always excited when new restaurants start working with us. Sometimes people ask, what is the best way to enjoy our wines? Our answer is: in a special location with good food and good company. That is what the amazing restaurants and bars serving our wines provide. The innovative Chefs and Bartenders use our wines as an ingredient to create a next level experience that will blow you away with the wonderful flavors Nordic nature has to offer.

Exports. Almost every year, we say to ourselves that this is going to be the year we start significant exports. Until this year it hasn’t happened, and here is why: Back when we founded Ainoa, we believed that the greatest potential for our products lay outside of the small market that is Finland. After all, what we were making were new, uniquely Nordic wines which allowed exciting new wine-food pairings. Wouldn’t every wine importer around the world want an opportunity to sell it into their market? No, they actually did not. Not only were our products new and unique, but they were also unproven. It takes a major effort to introduce something truly new to a market, and you need to explain to someone who has never considered it before just why they should for example try a wine made from cloudberries.

So, we focused first on the hard work of getting skeptical Finns to give our Nordic forest wines a chance. Once they tasted them, people realized Ainoa really was different, and our fans created so much demand that we had to build our new winery in Hollola with triple the capacity we previously had. Did we think we needed that much so quickly? No, but we thought once we had it, we could begin looking for export partners as we now had an example of robust market demand. Searching for new partners would require us to travel and meet them, however, soon after the winery was completed in the beginning of 2020 something happened and we could no longer travel. By the time we could travel again, our sales in Finland had pushed us again to our production capacity.

Putting serious export efforts on hold, for the last couple of years we have been working to build our capacity once again until finally in October 2023 we got our new warehouse up and running. Not coincidentally, we also set up meetings with several potential importer partners in October and found one that seemed to be a perfect match for us. It did not take long before we sent our first shipment of wines.

We are incredibly excited to announce that we are now working with Handpicked Wines Sweden AB. Ainoa’s Nordic wines will begin appearing in restaurants across Sweden soon, and hopefully in Systembolaget in the near future.

So what does 2024 hold in store? As always, we will need to wait and see, but we hope to build on our accomplishments. We will continue to enhance our facilities to enable future growth, while supporting our existing partners. We do plan to spend some time in Sweden to give the support needed for a successful launch and market entry there. We will also continue to work with smaller but nevertheless important partners outside of Finland to grow in those markets, as well as look for our next new export partners to work with.

As many of you know by now, we always have new products in the works and we hope to release some of them in the coming year. But the big events will be tied to our 10th anniversary celebrations. Follow us on social media to learn more as we announce our plans. Everyone is invited.

Ainoa Winery turns 10!