We are a small Finnish family business that launched Glöet sparkling Glögg in the 2015 Christmas season. We are hugely proud of the international success our drink has achieved: Glöet can be bought from all 447 Systembolaget stores in Sweden this Christmas. This November, we are taking to the stage to receive the Bronze prize at the IWSC Awards Gala in England. In addition, our new flavour, Glöet White, won Gold in China and Hong Kong’s biggest wine competition earlier in the year.

WHERE DID IT ALL BEGIN?

The story of our Christmas sparkling wine began on Christmas Day 2012, when we wanted to offer our guests something different and mixed mulled wine extract with sparkling wine. One of our guests remarked, “People should be able to buy this ready-made,” little suspecting what the future held.

That’s where it all began. We set out to find a suitable partner. We found wine connoisseur, Antti Rinta-Huumo, who accepted the challenge. A sparkling Glögg recipe enjoyed cold was a difficult challenge, even for a wine-industry guru.

After a few twists and turns, Glöet became available from Alko stores during Christmas 2015, and has been part of its range ever since. Systembolaget in Sweden sold its first bottles in 2016. A big decision loomed when we received state support for internationalisation in 2018. Would we be willing to give up our day jobs for Glöet? We gave thought to the idea for 6 months. In early June 2018, Anette became the small business’s first employee and we decided to commit ourselves fully to the company’s international growth.

A NEW WAY TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

Business in the Nordic countries is based on strong distribution, so it’s great for us that Glöet is highly available this season, particularly in Sweden. When testing and tasting a homemade Glögg and sparkling wine blend during Christmas 2012, and wondering why no one had created such a product, we never imagined winning double bronze in the sector’s most prestigious wine competition. Our small family business has created a completely new category of Christmas sparkling wines for the Nordic countries, alongside traditional, warmed mulled wine. We are now entering new markets due to the international attention we have drawn. Our product will be on sale not only in the Nordic countries, but also in Germany and the UK this Christmas.

The flavour of Glöet is based on familiar Christmas spices: cinnamon, cloves, orange, ginger, vanilla and lemon. Glöet should be drunk as cold as possible.

Have a lovely pre-Christmas period!