Hedon’s Liisa Tirronen is a wine influencer

If you drink wine, you’ve probably at some point tasted a drink that Liisa Tirronen has influenced in one way or another. Either it’s the contents of the wine or the label on the bottle.

We rarely know what the person behind our favorite wine looks like. Instead, the wine label is even more familiar. Tirronen, the entrepreneur of the wine import company Hedon, knows this very well.

In recent years, he has focused more on labels, thinking about the stories behind the wines and developing new concepts.

– As a child, I didn’t consider myself creative. I wasn’t good at drawing, singing or skating, Tirronen recalls.

Now in his sixties, Tirronen understands that he has always been very creative, but in a different way than was acceptable in the riverside suburb of the 60s.

– I have always seen the world differently.

Joensuu of childhood

Tirronen was born into a middle-class family as the first child of a nurse mother and a builder father.

All the families in the neighboring houses were from the same social class and there were many children in the yards. The girls’ Desired Profession was either a nurse or a teacher, as both professions could be studied in Joensuu.

– I already thought as a child that I wanted something more than this. I just didn’t know what it would be.

Although Tirronen already felt as a child that he did not belong, he is still proud of his roots.

– It’s great when I can tell people I’m from Joensuu, because it’s always a surprise and the eyebrows go up in surprise, Tirronen laughs.

He says directly that his childhood and youth were saved by horses, because without them Joensuu would have been even more boring.

The restaurant world is calling

After high school, Tirronen still didn’t know what he wanted to do. That’s when he noticed an advertisement in the newspaper Karjalainen for a wine cashier trainee for a restaurant. Tirrose had no idea what that meant, but he applied and got the position.

– I had no experience in restaurants. My family and I never went to them. Even on the language course in Brighton, I hadn’t been to pizza, because I had heard that pizza was bad. The restaurant job took me right away, it was so interesting.

The barman of the restaurant was of the opinion that Tirronen was born in the industry, and that he should go to restaurant school in Helsinki.

Tirronen loved his studies at Perho.

Wines were part of Perho’s studies even in the 1980s, although at that time Alko had a selection of 200 bottles.

– I got interested in wine work already in Perho. There were such incredibly good teachers.

Wine takes you with you

At least in his three years in Germany after Perho, Tirronen realized that wine is his thing.

He acquired all possible wine books and began to study independently. Tirronen realized that he understands wines more than many others.

Thanks to the employers Finnjet and later Viking Line, who offered the young and skilled waiter challenges and opportunities to learn more – and at the same time develop his job description on board.

Tirrosen’s wine expertise was also noticed in the countries, because at the beginning of the 2000s he was offered the position of product manager in a wine importing company.

– It knocked me off my feet. I got a chance to see the world and the whole process of making wine.

At that time, Alko had 2,000 different wines in its selection.

Own business

Four years ago, Tirronen founded his own company. Alko now has a selection of more than 7,700 wines. However, you have to stand out from the crowd.

Tirronen laughs that he has more celebrity wines in his selection than anyone else in Finland. Tirrosen’s stable includes, among others Sami Kuronen, May Day Pimi, Krisse Salminenthe band Rajaton, Teresa Välimäki, Sikke Sumari and Pipsa Hurmerinta

Tirronen has brought from abroad to Finland Mary J Blidgen and by Sarah Jessica Parker the wines.

Hedon has profiled his own wines and Tirrosen’s true love – Taittinger champagne.

The champagne family Clovis Taittinger has stated that Liisa Tirronen is more Taittinger than their family.

The cooperation that started in 2006 has turned into friendship over the years. Taittinger was Hedon’s first boss.

Always too much

Tirronen describes himself as straightforward and straight-forward, he does not favor anyone. And he doesn’t blend in anywhere.

– I’ve always been a bit too much and someone has always been annoyed. I’m like a little girl who puts on all her jewelry at once, Tirronen describes.

Tirronen laughs that he has been waiting for this current fashion all his life. Now you can be showy, you can have bling-bling and sparkle.

Since his childhood, Tirronen has not cared about what others say. Sometimes he has heard, for example, that big hair is no longer in fashion.

– So what? I like it.

Tirronenka doesn’t interfere with other people’s choices either, although sometimes she might tell her daughter that lipstick would suit her.

No unnecessary absoluteness

The same applies to wines: it’s not good to judge other people’s choices.

Above all, Tirronen asks people to show mercy to others and themselves. You shouldn’t be so absolute in food and wine culture either.

Tirronen has imprinted on his mind the wisdom of one of Perho’s teachers: “If you have a customer who asks for Kossu with buttermilk and a Pectus lozenge, you take the drink. You don’t say you can’t order one.”

Everyone’s own taste tells what is right and what is wrong.

The most important thing is that the drink and food are well made. Tirronen does not tolerate carelessness. If he gets a poorly prepared dish in front of him in a restaurant, he always gives feedback.

Tirronen’s own favorite wines are white and acidic. And even better if there are bubbles in the drink.

There’s no way you can make him a red wine person. It’s completely pointless to tell Liisa Tirrose what she should drink with her food.

To accompany the steak, he might enjoy, for example, a white Sauvignon blanc. There is no wrong option.

For work, Tirronen evaluates red wines almost every day, but then he doesn’t drink them. Sometimes, even at home, it is difficult for Tirrosen to remember when opening a bottle of wine from the weekend that now the wine is to be swallowed, not spewed out of the mouth.

Passions

But when Tirronen gets to drink wine with his friends, the joy is supreme. He organizes dinners a few times a year, which he has been preparing for several weeks. He is constantly making different menus in his head for his future dinners.

– I love the adrenaline and fear that comes when I challenge myself in the kitchen.

Tirronen also loves cooking. Mushrooms drive him crazy. He became crazy about mushrooms as a child.

One of his favorite dishes also comes from his childhood, by his grandmother’s hearth.

– I could live only on potatoes and gravy.

In addition to being crazy about mushrooms, Tirronen is also crazy about sauces. He believes that the sauce crowns the meal. French cuisine and its sauces are Tirrosen’s passion.

Tirro is still haunted by the time when restaurants served only small dots of sauce on the plate.

Tirronen is grateful for his family and friends.

– I feel loved. I’m good with myself.