Finlandia (vodka)

The distillery that produces Finlandia vodka was founded in 1888 by Dr. Wilhelm Juslin next to the glacial spring in the small Finnish village of Rajamäki in the Nurmijärvi parish.[2] Today, a facility at that same historic location still manufactures and packages Finlandia.[3][4]

In 1920, after the passage of the alcohol Prohibition Act in Finland, the Rajamäki distillery was bought by the Finnish state to secure an alcohol supply for pharmacies and for other non-beverage purposes. When the Prohibition Act was lifted in 1932, the state took over exclusive control of vodka production.[1]

In 1970, Alko, the state-owned alcoholic beverage company, established the Finlandia vodka brand name.[5] A year later the Finlandia brand became the first Nordic vodka sold in the United States,[6] as well as the first imported vodka brand there classified in a premium category.[7]

In 1975, a new alcoholic beverage plant was constructed at the Rajamaki location in Finland, and the distilling operation was centralized at the Koskenkorva facility in 1987.[8]

In 2000, the private U.S.-based Brown-Forman Corporation acquired 45% of Finlandia Vodka Worldwide, with the state-owned Altia Group, a successor of Alko, retaining 55% ownership.[9] Two years later Brown-Forman acquired an additional 35% stake in Finlandia Vodka. In 2004, Brown-Forman acquired the remaining 20% of Finlandia Vodka and assumed 100% ownership in the brand.[10]

In 2016, Bloomberg reported Brown-Forman was considering a sale of Finlandia Vodka which was not commented by the company,[11] and the brand was not sold (as of end of 2019).

Finlandia vodka is produced from Finnish-grown six-row barley and pure glacial spring water.

At the Koskenkorva facility in western Finland, initial distillation of the fermented six-row barley takes place in seven columns with an average height of 25 meters using Altia’s multi-pressure distilling system. Any remaining impurities, including lethal methanol as well as fusel alcohols and oils, are removed as the grain spirit is moved in a continuous process through more than 200 distillation steps.[12] The entire production process, from grain mashing until the final neutral spirit flows out of the column, takes approximately 50 hours.

The final product, a grain spirit 96.5% by volume, is then transported about 315 kilometers (196 miles) south to the historic alcoholic beverage plant in the village of Rajamäki near Helsinki. The barley distillate is diluted with glacial water from the Rajamäki spring. Because the water is naturally filtered through sand and moraine formed by retreating glaciers during the Ice Age,[13] no deionization, osmosis treatment or other artificial purification is used — unlike with some other vodkas.[14][15][16]

The cooling and heating water used throughout the process is recirculated in a closed system to efficiently control temperature and keep water use to a minimum.[17][1]

Finlandia Redberry

Finlandia is available in pure form (distilled alcohol + water) and in several flavored versions.[18]

During the past several decades, the marketing of Finlandia vodka has involved a number of global promotional campaigns.

• 1976-1985 Several advertising campaigns in which taste is the primary focus: “There are vodkas for orange juice lovers and tomato juice lovers. Now a vodka for vodka lovers” (1976).[20] “The vodka for vodka purists” (1977).[21] “Vodka for vodka drinkers” (1982). “Finlandia Vodka for vodka lovers” (1983). “The world’s finest vodka. Over ice” (1984–85).[22]
• 1990 The campaign “Finlandia. Vodka From the Top of the World” stresses the properties appreciated by vodka drinkers: coldness, clarity and purity.[23] The campaign was reintroduced in 2006.
• 1998 The campaign “In a past life I was pure, glacial spring water”[24] is launched under the umbrella theme “Past Lives” in which Finlandia vodka recalls its glacial origins. The ad series evokes a sense of the past through grainy photos and personalities speaking about their past lives.
• 1999 The campaign “Refresh” captures Finlandia vodka as "purely refreshing".[25][26]
• 2002 Finlandia appears as “The Official Vodka of James Bond” for “007 Die Another Day”, the James Bond film series.[27]
• 2005 The campaign “Vodka from a Purer Place” declares Finlandia to be "naked vodka" by playing up its Finnish heritage and the "pure glacial spring water" from which it is made. Transparent bottles are posed against snowy landscapes under headlines like "Here you see exactly what you're made of" and "When you have nothing to hide behind, you tend not to hide anything”.[28]
• 2013 The campaign “To the life less ordinary” is designed to illustrate that, due to its blend of 6-row barley, glacial water and the midnight sun process, Finlandia is a “less ordinary vodka” produced in a less ordinary fashion. The campaign is meant to inspire viewers to never settle for the routine but instead always embrace a less ordinary life.[29]

Frozen Ice (1970) Tapio Wirkkala designed the original “Frozen Ice” bottle, which conveyed the impression of an ice-cold drink from Lapland in the Arctic North. The textured glass glittered like the surface of an icicle. The label featured two white reindeers sparring against the Midnight Sun low on the horizon.[30][31][32]

Hammered Ice (1998) Hansen Design of Design Philadelphia introduced “Hammered Ice” bottle design. The paper label was dropped and replaced with lacquered text.[33]

Glacial Ice (2003) Harri Koskinen, Finnish tabletop glass and industrial designer, along with New York’s Wallace Church & Co. graphic designers and the Finlandia Global package design team, designed and launched the “Glacial Ice” bottle. The texture mimicked the sensation of melting ice, capturing the origins of the brand’s glacial spring water.[34][35]

Melting Ice (2011) Finlandia introduced a new bottle called “Melting Ice”. The bottle was developed through the collective effort of designers including Harri Koskinen, the Finnish designer who was instrumental in the development of the prior Finlandia bottle, and Kenneth Hirst, an industrial designer based in New York, who sculpted the new form.[36]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Finlandia vodka.

• Finlandia Vodka website
• Altia Corporation - Finlandia Vodka contract producer