WHENEVER I take pics of an alcoholic beverage, I always move the water in the background out the way. My friends laugh at me: “oh no, there can’t be water in Bianca’s Instagram feed!” Truth is, there is always water. I like drinking water. I drink a lot of it, especially in the warmer weather. So it wasn’t a stretch to do a water tasting; in fact, I welcomed it.
There’s been much scoffing at water pairings with food, and water sommeliers, but anyone who is a dedicated drinker of it will know not all waters are created equal. Some are indeed more delicious than others, with different mouth feels, and don’t even get me started on why I detest tap water. Nico Pieterse is South Africa’s first water sommelier and you’ll find him The Library at Lanzerac in Stellembosch, where he will guide you through a tasting and fill your head with a stream of facts.
Nico travels around the world, tasting and marking water, then brings the best he can find to South Africa. He distributes through The Fine Water Company, and if you can afford it, you too can sip the very best. Also, the bottles are so beautiful.
At a fine water-tasting, you sample and learn about different types of high-quality bottled water, similar to a wine or whisky tasting. This experience involves exploring the unique flavours, textures, and mineral compositions of various waters sourced from natural springs, glaciers, artesian wells, and other pristine sources around the world. This is a good time to bring out one of my favourite fun facts: The amount of water on Earth is finite. Think about it.
Most of it is saltwater in oceans, with only a small fraction available to us to use, a lot of it locked up in glaciers, ice caps, or deep underground. This doesn’t stop people from harvesting it though, and it’s fascinating to learn you can get bottled water that is thousands of years old, from a glacier for instance. Also, that same water is “recycled” (basic school science) so you could be slaking your thirst with the sweat of your ancestors.
For our tasting Nico included mostly sparkling waters, which I did not like before and do not like now. The bubbles are for the most part carbonated, some pushed in fast, others slowly, with varying results. The only one I enjoyed had soft tiny natural bubbles accumulated during its passage from its underground source, and is rich in minerals gathered on this journey (Jermuk from Armenia).
You will learn some unpleasant truths too. Not all bottled waters are created equal, and Nico explains in detail what you should be looking for on the label, to achieve the best health benefits. Refilling at supermarket stations? That doesn’t have any minerals whatsoever, he says. This means it will strip your body of its existing minerals and ultimately dehydrate you. There is a workaround: add mineral-dense salt.
And then there’s the plastic…the expiry date you see there? that’s not for the water (since a lot of it is millennia old, see above) but for the bottle, which is degrading as you look at it. At any given time, it’s shedding micro-plastics, which you are ingesting. I know this is a big talking point at the moment, but I despair, truly I do. Like ultra-processed food, how even does one begin to eliminate all of this from our lives? If you are wealthy, only buy in glass. The rest of us poor schmucks just have to play the hand we are dealt on a daily basis, and relish glass bottled-water in restaurants.
Overall, this was a thoroughly informative hour, and I highly recommend it. To book, visit DinePlan and search for ‘The Library’ at Lanzerac in Stellenbosch, where the 45–60 minute experience costs R350 per person; availability may vary, and weekend slots tend to fill quickly with both locals and tourists eager to explore this unique sensory journey.
PHOTO CREDIT: Bianca Coleman ©
