Haute Water

It’s odourless, colourless and arguably tasteless—so why would you spend US$400 on a bottle of water? Melissa Twigg investigates the rising popularity of boutique H 2 0, which is commanding prices and prestige akin to fine wine.

- Melissa Twig

Martin riese will only drink tap water if he is in Alaska, British Columbia or the German town of Flensburg. If he’s in one of the less H 2 0-enlightened parts of the world, he’ll sip on Iskilde bottled water from Denmark, Vichy Catalan from Spain or Roi from Slovenia. This unusually specific approach to thirst quenching is the result of many years of research into the different variations of H 2 0 for his role as a water sommelier at Ray’s and Stark Bar, a high-end restaurant in Los Angeles. And while that last sentence may be the most Californian thing you’ve ever read, Riese is in fact a savvy German expat who has tapped into a rising global phenomenon for eschewing the tap in favour of exorbitantly priced water from the other side of the planet.

And we’re not talking about a nice glass of Evian or San Pellegrino—oh, no, these newly popular waters cost 30 times as much as traditional bottled water and are bought by water connoisseurs for the specific sets of minerals that give them unique flavours. “Water is way more complex than people think,” says Riese. “It should be odourless, but that doesn’t mean it has no taste. Every bottled spring or mineral water has its very own mineral composition due to the soils it has run through, which means water can taste anywhere from smooth to salty or fruity to complex and bitter. For me, it’s fascinating that a beverage with no colour and no smell has so much variation.”