The New Wave
The explosion. From 2020 onward, Helsinki went from 'interesting wine city' to 'can't keep up with the openings.' Muru Winebar validated dedicated wine bars. Grape brought three women with a vision. David Alberti opened Flor with 400 biodynamic labels. Pinocchio proved Italian glasses under EUR 9 could draw crowds. And it keeps accelerating — Tales opened in 2026. This trail GROWS over time. Come back next year and there'll be new stops. That's the whole point.
A Wine Memories curated trail · winememories.fi
Map
Stops
Curated by Wine Memories
- 1
Muru Winebar — The Boom Begins
Samuil Angelov opened Muru Winebar in 2020 around the corner from Restaurant Muru on Lönnrotinkatu 14 — validating the idea that Helsinki could sustain a dedicated wine bar, not just a restaurant with a good list. Over 750 wines, daily-changing by-the-glass selection, and the kitchen sends over cold cuts, risotto, and small plates from Muru proper. The space has become one of Helsinki's top locations to drink wine. Wednesday-Saturday, 16:30-23:00. Come early — the 30-odd seats fill fast.
Tasting Price: moderate - 2
Grape Wine Bar Helsinki
Helsinki's dedicated wine tasting room in the Kamppi district. Grape hosts weekly guided tastings with rotating themes — Italian varietals one week, natural wines the next. The ground-floor bar offers over 30 wines by the glass, while the upstairs tasting room seats about 20 for structured events. A solid year-round option when the islands are closed.
Tasting Price: moderate - 3
Bar Petiit: Natural Wine in Puu-Vallila's Wooden Quarter
Bar Petiit is a small wine bar at Suvannontie 17 in Puu-Vallila, Helsinki's quarter of wooden worker houses. It opens every day at 17:00 and takes no reservations. There is no kitchen and no printed list: the bottles on offer hang on the wall, with around ten wines by the glass, mostly natural and biodynamic. Trams 1 and 7 stop at Vallilan kirjasto, about 200 m away. In the 1970s residents fought to save these houses, and in 1980 the quarter was protected. You can walk its streets, read the wall, and cross the road to Plein for dinner, Wednesday to Saturday.
Tasting Price: moderate - 4
Pinocchio Italian Wine Bar
30+ years serving Italian wines in Helsinki. Family-run with direct imports from small Italian estates. The nonno knows every producer personally.
Wine bar Price: moderate - 5
Gadeplan: A Grower's Glass and a 700 m Wine Loop
Gadeplan opened in 2025 at Annankatu 22 in Kamppi, central Helsinki, where the Italian wine bar Bricco Annankatu used to be. It is open Tuesday to Saturday from 16:00 and pours a rotating glass list at 9–13 € from growers such as Domaine Matassa, where Tom Lubbe has added no sulfur since 2015, and L'Octavin in the Jura. In Finland, shops may sell wine only up to 8%; stronger bottles go through Alko, the state's shops. You can trace your glass to its grower, walk 159 m to Muru's wine bar for a three-glass blind tasting on Wednesdays, and finish at Grape in Punavuori.
Tasting Price: moderate - 6
Klaava and Kuurna: Two Doors on Sea Customs Street
Klaava is the walk-in wine bar next door to the bistro Kuurna, at Meritullinkatu 6 in Kruununhaka. Laura Styyra and Tom Hansen, who worked at Kuurna and bought it about ten years ago, opened the bar beside it in summer 2025. Klaava opens at 16:00 and takes no bookings; Kuurna opens at 17:00 and takes them. Both are closed on Sundays. You can taste a three-sip set at the bar, sit down to two courses from €46 next door, and find the crooked 1765 customs house 226 m away, on a street named after the old customs and packing house.
Tasting Price: moderate - 7
Tales Wine Bar: Stories on the Bank-Hall Corner
Tales is a walk-in wine bar at Arkadiankatu 14 in Helsinki's Etu-Töölö, opened in January 2026 by Teemu Laurell and Lennart Sukapää, the owners of Restaurant Teller next door. Teller fills a former bank hall in a building completed in 1921, and the names are an English pair: a teller tells tales. Teller says KOP Bank and a record shop came before it. Sommelier Heidi Reis writes a list of European wines; at opening a glass cost €10 to about €20, alcohol-free wine from €9. You can walk Arkadiankatu from Paasikivi's monument, read the corner, then sit at the open-kitchen counter for the garlic brioche.
Tasting Price: moderate - 8
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.'
Tasting Price: moderate Optional - 9
Spis — Natural Wine Restaurant
Spis brings the natural wine philosophy to the dining table — a restaurant where every bottle on the list is chosen with the same low-intervention ethos that drives Helsinki's wine bar revolution. The kitchen works seasonal Finnish ingredients into dishes designed to showcase rather than fight the wines. Part of the Kallio-Vallila natural wine corridor that includes Wino, Way Bakery, and Bar Petiit. Where Helsinki's restaurant and wine bar cultures converge. Listed on Raisin (the natural wine guide) as one of Helsinki's key natural wine venues.
Dinner Price: moderate Optional