Grape Wine Bar Helsinki

How to Complete

4 steps curated by Wine Memories

1. 🍷 1

   Ask About Austria — and Watch the Staff Light Up

   wine $$

   📍 WHERE: At the bar at Uudenmaankatu 13, Punavuori. It's a narrow, cosy room — you'll be close enough to the staff to have a real conversation.

   💡 WHAT: Here's the secret nobody mentions in the guidebooks: Grape has won Finland's Austrian Wine List of the Year every single year since they opened in 2021 — 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025. Five consecutive years. In a bar that also just won Finland's overall Wine List of the Year 2024 and scored 92 Falstaff points. Austria isn't a footnote here — it's an obsession. Think Grüner Veltliner from steep Wachau terraces where the Danube narrows and soils barely cling to vertical schist walls. Think Kamptal Riesling with the white pepper snap that's distinctly, unmistakably Austrian. These are wines made by small producers the three founders specifically hunted down — not Alc13 supermarket bottles, but the kind that make you rethink what a white wine can do.

   🎯 HOW: Tell the staff you're curious about their Austrian selection. Ask what's on the current glass list — it changes every week, so there will always be something you haven't tried. If they have a Wachau Grüner Veltliner, order it. Pair with the charcuterie board or escargots.

   🔄 BACKUP: If you're not an Austria devotee, tell them your usual wine preference and ask what small-producer surprise they'd recommend this week. The glass list covers Old World broadly — France, natural wines, classics — and the staff give honest recommendations.

   🍷 Log Memory
2. 🍷 2

   Hunt the Rare Pour on Thirst Thursday

   wine $

   📍 WHERE: Same bar, same address — but come on a Thursday evening. Uudenmaankatu 13, Punavuori.

   💡 WHAT: Every Thursday, Grape opens bottles that normally never appear by the glass. Rare stuff — bottles that are too precious or too limited to pour freely on a Tuesday. This is how a wine bar with a short list (under 200 selections — it's won Best Short List of the Year three times) punches far above its weight: instead of a sprawling static list, they rotate constantly and on Thursdays they open the good bottles. It's the wine equivalent of a jazz club having an open jam night, except instead of Coltrane covers you're drinking bottles that normally live on auction lists.

   🎯 HOW: Arrive between 5–8pm on a Thursday (check grapewinebar.fi or their Instagram @grape_winebar_and_tastingroom for current hours). Ask the staff what's open tonight for Thirst Thursday. Order one glass of whatever is most unusual. Spend at least 20 minutes with it. The glass list changes weekly, so even if you've been before, there will be something new.

   🔄 BACKUP: Any evening works — the by-the-glass list is genuinely excellent any night of the week. The difference on Thursdays is the rarity tier of what gets opened.

   🍷 Log Memory
3. ⛰️ 3

   Find the Only Sunday Wine Bar in Helsinki

   adventure Free

   📍 WHERE: Walk down Uudenmaankatu on a Sunday. The street sits in the heart of Punavuori — Helsinki's Design District neighborhood, historically working-class, now the most bohemian district in the city. Most wine bars are closed Sunday. Grape is not.

   💡 WHAT: In a city where Sunday closures are the norm, three women decided their bar would be the exception. Every Sunday the kitchen pivots to Slow Sunday — a 4-course set menu that changes every week, a reasonably priced glass of champagne, and a DJ playing vinyl. It's not brunch-as-performance. It's brunch as philosophy: the idea that Sunday is exactly when you should slow down and actually taste what's in your glass, rather than rushing to finish before the place closes. Decanter called it 'an invitation to savour both food and wine in a relaxed atmosphere.' That undersells it. It's the most specifically Helsinki wine experience you can have — a feminist-founded institution in the Design District, open when everything else is shut, playing records while you eat escargots.

   🎯 HOW: Just show up on a Sunday. No reservation required for the bar (though the Tasting Room events require booking). Sit down, let them explain the Slow Sunday menu — it changes every week. Order the champagne. Let the vinyl do its job.

   🔄 BACKUP: If Sunday doesn't work, any evening is worth the visit. The wine list and staff are the draw regardless of day.

   🍷 Log Memory
4. 📜 4

   Step Into the Tasting Room Three Doors Down

   Optional

   history $$$

   📍 WHERE: The Tasting Room is located a few doors from the wine bar on Uudenmaankatu — same building, different entrance. Opened spring 2022, it holds up to 30 people.

   💡 WHAT: This is where Grape becomes something more than a wine bar. The Tasting Room hosts winemaker dinners — evenings where the actual person who made the wine stands in the room and talks you through what they were thinking when they planted, harvested, and bottled. It also runs guided wine tastings structured around themes (Austrian varietals, natural wine vs. classic, French regionalism) led by staff who clearly know what they're talking about — this is the team that just won Finland's Wine List of the Year. For a group, it's private event territory: business meetings with a 'wine twist,' private parties, all with food from the Grape kitchen. Capacity is 30, which means it never feels like a lecture and always feels like a dinner party.

   🎯 HOW: For guided public tastings and winemaker dinners, check the events calendar on grapewinebar.fi or Instagram @grape_winebar_and_tastingroom for upcoming dates. For private events (minimum groups of approximately 10-15), email info@grapewinebar.fi with your date and group size. Prices for guided tastings vary by event — private events are by quote.

   🔄 BACKUP: Even if a tasting isn't scheduled during your visit, ask the bar staff about upcoming events. The Tasting Room calendar tends to fill weeks in advance for winemaker dinners.

   🍷 Log Memory