Munskänkarna is a wine tasting organization with over 21,000 members. The Swedish word “Munskänk” (corresponding to Mundschenk in German) is a term which is synonumous to “cup-bearer”. It is used to refer to a single member, with the organisation’s name “Munskänkarna” being the plural definite form. The organisation was established in Stockholm in 1958 and has continuously expanded with chapters in other locations, some outside of Sweden.

In 2000, the chapters in Finland had become numerous enough to split off to form their own Finnish language organisation, Suomen Munskänkarna (the first chapter was even founded in 1982 in Turku).

Nowdays, in Finland there are more than 1500 members in 14 chapters in the Finnish-speaking organisation and 11 chapters in the Swedish-speaking organisation. Munskänkarna claims to be the world’s largest wine tasting organisation.

Activities of Munskänkarna primarily include wine tastings and wine-related courses. The courses are organised much in the same way as those of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust: there are several different levels of progressing difficulty, and both a theoretical and a practical (i.e., blind tasting of wine) test at each level, plus a thesis at the highest level.