Orthodox Monastery to Dominate Finnish Whiskey Production

By The Moscow Times

July 2, 2014

An Orthodox monastery in Finland is set to become the country's largest whiskey producer, according to local media reports.

The monastery, which is already in the wine-production business, is prepared to invest millions of euros into the construction of a distillery, Finnish MTV News reported Wednesday. It expects to produce 120,000 liters of the spirit annually.

The finished product will be bottled at Finland's historic Hermannin Winery, the oldest in the country.

Bottles of Valaam Whiskey will reach liquor stores in spring 2018.

The spirit will be produced in the New Valaam Monastery in Finland, which was established in 1940 by monks who had been evacuated from their old monastery in Russia's Karelia.

The original Valaam Monastery was occupied by Soviet forces shortly after the evacuation, but was reopened in 1989, and is now frequented by President Vladimir Putin. Unlike the Finnish monastery, it does not produce any alcoholic beverages.

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