Behind The Vines: Noita Winery
Noita winery is an independently owned, urban winery based in the village of Fiskars in the south east of Finland. The company was originally founded by Simon McCabe and Jari Leinonen who are two young, massive natural wine advocates determined to produce incredibly high-quality natural wines from Finland, whether they’ve got vineyards local to their cellar or not! Now you might be wondering - ‘what exactly is an urban winery??’ but don’t worry about it too much, it’s not actually that complicated; an urban winery is exactly what it says on tin, it’s a winery that is located in a much more urban type of environment compared to a typical styled winery that‘s normally set up in a more regional area with direct access to grapes via their own vines. Generally, urban wineries will have access to grapes from trusted, background checked, established grape growers in neighbouring countries. Which is exactly what Simon and Jari have been doing since they founded Noita, they acquire their grapes from an organic certified, single grape grower who is situated in the Austrian winemaking region of Burgenland.
The major benefit to Noita Winery being an urban winery is that they do not own the vineyard where they get their grapes from which as most people in the industry are aware of, can tie up an awful lot of finances that may not be feasible for a new startup business. Then you have the other benefit of urban wineries which is when you have aspiring winemakers who do not live in a country that has suitable weather conditions to grow grapes in, and being able to acquire their grapes from a nearby suitable country and then do all the rest of the work in their own ‘urban cellar’ is a fantastic alternative! There’s also a lot of flexibility in owning an urban winery like Noita because they can harvest grapes from multiple growers across France, Austria, Spain, Italy, Germany and many more wine-producing territories across Europe.
Noita’s grapes that come straight from Burgenland are transported directly to Fiskars in a temperature controlled van to make sure they are not tainted or harmed in any way, shape or form upon arrival at their cellar. They then sort, crush, macerate and press their grapes in a completely low-intervention fashion, that juice is then allowed to spontaneously ferment with it’s own native yeasts. Noita has successfully embodied what it means to be a natural winery meaning they use absolutely zero sulphur if and when possible, they don’t filter or fine their wine and transparently communicate a list of all ingredients used in the production process on the back of every single bottle they release.
Check out NOITA's latest releases here
