Riikka Sukula

Early Years

Born in Finland, Sukula brings that background into a career now rooted in one of Piedmont’s most closely watched wine areas. The span between those places matters: it suggests a practice shaped by wine, hospitality, business, and place rather than by a single line of training. The work reads as cumulative, with each interest feeding the next until they became hard to separate. “I love new business and new concept development,” Sukula says, and the line functions less like branding than method. It points to a way of working that keeps craft and commerce in the same frame, with idea and atmosphere treated as part of the same build. That approach is clearest in her view of wine. “I wanted to understand how the land tastes in the wine.” The sentence gets to the center of the work: wine as an expression of terrain, read through aroma, texture, and finish rather than treated as an abstract luxury.

Making a Name

These names are practical markers in the work, not decoration. Barolo points to nebbiolo, a grape associated with precision and patience, while Barbera d’Alba brings barbera into a distinct register. Together they show a career spent paying attention to the differences that matter: site, style, and what each glass is meant to carry. In Sukula’s practice, naming a wine also places it, tying the bottle to landscape and to the work that shaped it.

The Present

The current focus sits directly with nebbiolo and barbera, the grapes at the center of her specialty. That position requires a steady hand: it is grounded in a region whose reputation asks for sensitivity, and in wines that reward restraint, nuance, and time. Sukula works in the space where hospitality and viticulture meet, where tasting is only one part of understanding wine.

Signature

Riikka's signature wines include Meriame Barolo DOCG and Barolo Serralunga d'Alba ‘Meriame’. The names signal place and intent, marking wines that belong to a specific expression of the work rather than to a general category. In a field where detail shapes identity, these bottles give the clearest read on her approach.

In Their Words “I’m Riikka Sukula, a wine and hospitality Jackie-of-all-trades.” “I wanted to understand how the land tastes in the wine.”