Alko organized a tasting event last week, which was very popular.
Sparkling wines are tasted on Thursday at Arkadia Alko in Helsinki. KIMMO HAAPALA
In Helsinki, Arkadian Alko organized a paid wine tasting last week, which got people moving. At worst, the queue for the event was two hours.
– Product tastings have been requested from us for so long and so much that we knew how popular it would be, says Alko’s head of service in the capital region Tatu Vanninen.
He states that more than a dozen customers were able to enjoy the store tasting during the four hours that the event lasted.
– At the beginning, you could join the tasting quite quickly, but during the evening, the waiting times really got a little longer when the word had spread and more customers came to the store. However, according to our experience, the atmosphere remained really nice throughout the evening. Some of the customers waited for their turn, some decided to skip the tasting this time.
The duration of one person’s tasting varied quite a lot depending on how many products were in the tasting (1-3 wines to choose from) and how closely the customer wanted to get to know the product.
The tasting area could accommodate five tasters at a time.
– We assigned shift numbers to those waiting in line, and some spent the entire waiting time in the store, while others occasionally went to take care of other things outside the store, Vanninen says.
According to him, the atmosphere remained positive throughout the evening and the customers understood the situation.
Until the next 5.12. small filings have been made for the tasting that will speed things up a bit.
– Brewing, however, is not only tasting wine, but also getting to know the drink, learning and analyzing the taste, so we don’t want to spoil our customers too much.
Decisions about the continuation of the trials have not been made yet. Vanninen states that now we will calmly collect experiences and feedback, and then we will think about the future.