Marraskuun 2023 sommelier on Nicolò Arnoldi
What’s your name and where do you work?
My name is Nicolò Arnoldi. I am originally Italian, from the area between Milano and Bergamo. I moved to Finland in 2014 for academic reasons. I studied and graduated from Tampere University of Applied Sciences TAMK, Media and Arts – Fine Arts programme.
I have lived and worked in Tampere during my studies, mainly in Restaurant Piemonte and Ravintola Hella ja Huone.
In the autumn of 2018 I moved to Stockholm and after a few months, moved back to Finland, in Helsinki. Here, I have worked in Hotel Kämp, Restaurant Jord and after that I started my long journey with Restaurant Olo, in which I have worked for more than 4 years. I had a brief moment also in Restaurant Inari, but eventually, went back to Restaurant Olo.
The next coming step will be a new restaurant, Lilja, in The Maria Hotel, a brand new hotel opening soon.
How did you first become interested in wine, and how did that interest evolve into a career?
My fascination for wines started merely during my first official work experience back in 2011, in Ristorante Devero by Chef Enrico Bartolini, where true excellences were served.
Then in early 2013, my mother and stepfather acquired a restaurant and enoteca in which I have worked until 2014. There, I might say the interest blossomed.
The true click, when I decided that I would have wanted to become a sommelier, happened in Restaurant Hella ja Huone in 2018.
After that, I started to truly focus on the wine world. I also completed the Wine and Spirit Educational Trust (WSET) Level 2 and 3 in 2021. I also gave independently exams for the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale (ASI) passing Level 1 and obtained the Diploma in 2023.
Wine is culture, history, geography, art, narratives. All elements that I deeply love. Wine is taste, it is emotion, it is pleasure. That is the reason why I decided that wine would have been my career.
I have to mainly thank 3 people that truly triggered my love for wines: my stepfather Giuseppe, my Maestro Sommelier Humberto Pulido Garcès and my other Maestro Sommelier Angel Layos.
What dish on your menu would you recommend at the moment? And the wine pairing for it?
From Restaurant Olo’s current menu I would recommend one of the starters: apple gel, pickled apple, smoked lamb fat sabayon, quail egg yolk, sautèed forest mushrooms, mushrooms consommè, fermented mushrooms beurre blanc foam, nasturtium leaf.
A wine I personally truly enjoyed as a pairing with the dish is Koehler Ruprecht Kallstader Saumungen Pfalz Riesling Kabinett Trocken 2017. An absolute harmony with the starter.
Tell us a memorable customer experience from your career!
A memorable and true funny moment happened in Hella ja Huone, when I was introducing a dish to a customer. The dish was based on wild herbs, provided to the restaurant by an old lady who foraged for us. We gave her a nick name: ‘Yrttimummu’.
Being the herbs wild, so ‘villiyrtit’ in Finnish, introducing the dish I just mixed up her nickname and wildherbs: what came out of my mouth was ‘This dish is based on herbs foraged by our Villimummu’. All the tables in the small dining room started to laugh out loud.
Who is the winemaker you would like to meet personally and why?
One winemaker I would like to meet personally? I would say Monsieur Jacques Selosse. Revolutionary legend.
What are your personal favourite food and wine pairings? Why?
Three of my favourite food and wine pairing? Quite hard to say, yet, something I would never, ever say no to:
- Green olives and Lustau Fino Jerèz.
- Focaccia alla Genovese stuffed with freshly sliced Mortadella and Champagne Charles Heidsieck, Brut Rèserve, NV.
- Ryynimakkara and Nino Negri, Sfursat Carlo Negri, Sforzato di Valtellina DOCG, 2016.
What is your favourite cocktail and why?
I love classic cocktails. I love a well made Negroni with 3 Angostura Bitter dashes. Classics are classics, always.