One of the best features of the brand new Finnair Platinum Wing in Helsinki is the manned bar with a terrific selection of champagne, wine, spirits and cocktails.
The Finnair Platinum Wing opened in June 2019 and is located in the non-Schengen transit hall at Helsinki Vantaa airport.
To get in you need to have a Finnair Platinum, a Finnair Platinum Lumo or a OneWorld Emerald card, and you need to travel on a Finnair or a OneWorld flight the same day. You also need to travel on a longhaul flight or on a shorthaul flight to a non-Schengen destination such as the UK or Russia. Presumably you also get in when connecting from a longhaul flight to a shorthaul flight.
The bar is manned at nearly all times, even in the morning at 6 am when the lounge opens. Possibly with the exception of when the bar needs to be replenished, which typically happens at non-peak times. Although you need some help from the bartender if you want to order spirits or cocktails, you can usually help yourself to some champagne and some of the wines if the bar is unmanned, or if the bartender is busy with other guests.
And the bar has a fantastic design. Very elegant and inviting but still with a Nordic minimalism.
The selection of red wines includes seven red wines, and they are all above average for an airport lounge. Two of these wines are offered in the a la carte restaurant when the a la carte service is offered, usually from noon until late afternoon around 5-6 pm when the flights to Asia leave. If you want another wine than those two offered in the restaurant you can always go to the bar to order something else.
In the restaurant they usually have the Margaux, Chateau Le Coteau 2015, the bottle right in the middle on the photo below, which is excellent.
The selection of spirits includes whisky, brandy, vodka, gin, rum and various liqueurs.
And if you enjoy a brandy they have the excellent Camus XO Elegance.
The gin selection is excellent and includes seven different types of gin, including some rather nice Nordic brands such as Napue Gin, Arctic Blue Gin, Kyrö Malt Rye Gin and the Swedish Hernö Gin. You will also find the excellent Hendrick’s gin.
And there are some Finnish liqueurs available as well such as the Lapponia liqueur with either cloudberry or blueberry.
There are also some white wines available, right by the counter. You can see the selection below.
And free-flowing champagne, with two choices. Just like in the old Finnair Premium Lounge they serve the Joseph Perrier brand. In recent years they had the Nicolas Feuillatte champagne but now they have changed back to Joseph Perrier as house champagne. And you can choose between the regular one or a pink one.
There is also a printed drink list available on the counter listing the different options as well as the cocktails available.
Final impression
Just like the new Finnair Platinum Wing in general, with the a la carte restaurant and the sauna, the manned bar is terrific. The bartenders working are friendly and approachable and the bar design is very elegant. The selection of wines is superb and well above average for an airport lounge and so is the selection of spirits, especially if you fancy a gin and tonic. And they can mix a lot of cocktails as well. I will definitely come back here many more times in the future.
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