Monday, June 10

Today a recent law comes into effect and, for the first time ever in Finland, supermarkets are allowed to sell “fermented alcohol” up to a strength of 8%. Previously you could only buy anything stronger than 5.5% at the state-run Alko, which closes at 18:00 on Saturday and doesn’t open on Sunday.

The inclusion of the word “fermented” proved controversial politically but efforts to remove it failed. As a result siderii (the artificial Finnish “cider”) and lonkero (“alkopops” with an entirely different cultural history) still have a maximum content of 5.5%.

We have come to Prisma to see what they have on offer. We discover that much of what they had on sale has already been sold. I photograph a photogenic bunch of red wine bottles. We realise that middle class wine drinkers will end up drinking slightly less alcohol, because 8% chardonnay or prosecco probably tastes little different to 11 or 12% chardonnay.

Beer drinkers, on the other hand, will have the opportunity to experience new frontiers of 8% drukeness.