Meet the People from the Village

But why is everything called Koskenkorva? Meet the family of Koskenkorva originating to The Koskenkorva estate, located near the river, is one of the oldest in the area, with a history dating back to the 1600s.

Dedicated local farmers

Pasi, Matti, Jaakko and Maija are among the almost 1500 farmers contributing to the making of Koskenkorva vodka. In the village of Koskenkorva, the craft of cultivating barley has been passed on from generation to generation. We encourage the local farmers to maximize the efficiency of farming, to use nutrients sensibly and to monitor the barley during the growth season to ensure its viability.

We also help farmers in areas such as performing plot-specific nutrient balance calculations. With these calculations, it is possible to determine the amount of nutrients introduced to the fields by fertilizers and the amount of nutrients removed during the harvest.

And why does that matter?

Farmers can then utilize this information in their nutrient calculations. The larger the field’s crop yield, the more efficiently the plants tie up nutrients in the harvested crop. Otherwise, if the nutrients are left in the soil, they will be washed off into waterways causing eutrophication. Thus, a high yield of good quality barley and environmentally friendly farming go hand in hand.

Koskenkorva Family

Originally, the Koskenkorva name didn’t mean an alcoholic beverage, but a place next to a rapid in a river in the Finnish language.When the railroad was built through the village in 1911, the village got its official name: Koskenkorva. The Koskenkorva estate, located near the river, is one of the oldest in the area, with a history dating back to the 1600s. Its current owners, the Koskenkorva family, are descendants of the famous Könni clockmasters from Ilmajoki.

So why is everything called Koskenkorva?

President of the Könni family association, Martti explains: “It’s a tradition in Southern Ostrobothnia that the eldest son inherits the family house and the estate and the rest of the siblings move to new lands.

If you bought an estate, you took the estate name as your surname. Here we have a sense that land is stronger than blood”, Martti explains. “My grandfather moved in 1886 to the Koskenkorva estate, which had been property of his father for many decades. My grandfather still kept the name Kuhna, which was the name of the prior estate, but his children changed their names to Koskenkorva after this estate. From that point on we have been called Koskenkorva”, Martti continues.

“On the estate there is a guest house and a Koskenkorva theme museum where plenty of material about the drink has been collected over the decades.” The Koskenkorva family runs ”Koskenkorvan Trahteeri”, that is a guest house and spa in a traditional Ostrobothnian way. Now the second generation, Jaakko Koskenkorva and his wife Sari have taken over the family business from Jaakko’s parents, Martti and Päivi.