Monopoly states for alcohol sales are interesting. We would know- our home state of Pennsylvania has state-controlled liquor sales and has only recently opened up the distribution of wine and beer.
So when we visited Norway and read about their strict control of alcohol, we knew a bit about what to expect.
As it turns out, their state liquor store, Vinmonopolet, is actually pretty good in terms of selection and price- the latter by US standards at least. The only downside? The stores are few and far between!
What All is Available at a Vinmonopolet?
More or less, if you want any alcohol above 4.7%, you’ll be heading to a Vinmonopolet.
Good beer? Vinmonopolet. Most meads? Vinmonopolet. Any wine? Vinmonopolet. Spirits? You guessed it, Vinmonopolet. It is pretty clear about this distinction for sales in Norway, so if you see something that looks to be alcoholic in a non-Vinmonopolet store, it is pretty safe to say it is going to be just at, or well or under, 4.7%. Yes, many producers will brew beer to precisely that percent to get around this particular rule!
Of course, much like other Scandinavian countries, when you nationalize an entire industry, offerings can be standardized across the board. While the variety of wines, particularly European wines, was varied, you may find just a handful of any given producer from the same producers from store to store. More local products, like Nordic beer, meads, and ciders had a bit more variety, but after going in a few Vinmonopolet’s around the western fjords, they all started to feel rather similar by the end.
That said, for the bottles they do carry, they tend to have quite good brands, and we found several producers that we love and even sometimes struggle to find at home.
We always like to compare a price to a bottle we buy at home, and Chateau Musar’s 2016 was a good example. During our 2023 visit to Norway, we found the bottle available on the shelves of a Vinmonopolet for 529,90 krone- or about $52. This was about $10 more than we have seen it in other stores in Europe, and, in the USA, this bottle generally is priced at around $70 if not far higher.
So while you’re paying a premium by European standards, the price still is respectable if you’re coming from virtually anywhere else.
Vinmonopolet Stores Can Be Hard to Come By
Truly, the biggest downside to Vinmonopolet is that it is hard to come by outside of major cities. During our road trip around the western fjords, we saw precisely three Vinmonopolet stores, with the third being one we detoured to check out to buy some mead to take home with us near the end of our trip.
This is, of course, by design- the entire point of the Vinmonopolet system is to reduce consumption, and with rural areas being quite far away from stores, it does just that.
But for us, as consumers who love to buy products to take home as gifts (which in Norway meant gin, mead, and cider), the lack of stores made things tricky. Did we drive out of our way nearly one hour to hit a Vinmonopolet that had a mead we loved so that we could get some extra bottles to take home? Yes, yes we did. Would we have bought more if the store in Bergen was not closed on our last day in the country? Also yes.
Perhaps the biggest issue here was simply that overall accessibility is tricky. One brewery we went to in Flam had a beautiful barrel-aged stout that we wanted to buy a bottle of to take home for a friend, but due to laws, they were not allowed to sell anything above 4.7% themselves, naturally. Could we find it in any of the Vinmonopolet stores to help support the business? Nope, not in the slightest, and that felt unfortunate.
But, alas, that is how these things go, so for those who want to shop in Norway, you’ll need to be strategic in your planning.
A Workaround? Buy at Duty-Free on Arrival
Finally, it is worth pointing out that Norway’s tourism sector is well aware that the Vinmonopolet system is designed to curb drinking. It is not a hidden element but one of the main reasons the system exists outright. But they also make it easy to shop in one specific location- duty-free on arrival.
We are no strangers to picking up a discounted bottle of wine or spirits duty-free when leaving a country (we even did so on our way out of Norway). But it is rare to see a store available to passengers arriving on an international flight- and that is exactly what we saw in Bergen.
Just next to baggage claim, a massive duty free store had a pretty respectable selection of wines, spirits, ciders, and beer. These selections were not as good as a large Vinmonopolet store, of course, but certainly had enough that we had to pick up a few bottles while waiting for our delayed luggage to come out.
Even better? The bottles were also at a bit of a discount over what you would see at a Vinmonopolet store- we compared prices with the online inventory for a sanity check. Why yes, we’ll gladly pick up a Champagne and cider on arrival to enjoy up in the mountains at a hike, and thank you very much for the discount!
So while Norway doesn’t make it easy to find a good bottle of wine, when you do, odds are good you may find a few gems at decent prices- by US standards at least. But, when in doubt, buy your wine duty-free on arrival and skip the hassle!
