Latest news with #FineWaterSummit
Mint
07-07-2025
- Mint
Water sommeliers say the simplest drink is the future of luxury
SIX ESTEEMED sommeliers sit silently behind a judging table. A waiter tops up their glasses one by one and they appraise the stuff: sniff, hold it to the light, sometimes swirl, sip, swish between cheeks, dump the extras and give it a score. But the liquid is no Zinfandel or Syrah. Instead the bon viveurs are tasting high-end waters. The competition launched this year's Fine Water Summit in the swanky Buckhead neighbourhood of Atlanta, Georgia. With 1,100 bottles imported from 35 countries, it is the biggest event of its sort. The assembled connoisseurs—from Hong Kong to France and California—have paid $975 each for a weekend of talks and tastings co-ordinated by Michael Mascha, the group's Austrian founder, who lives in Texas. Most are middle-aged, very foodie and unusually fit. Many are among the 250 water sommeliers ordained by Mr Mascha's academy. Months of training have taught them to appreciate how minerality changes water's flavour, how silica affects its mouth-feel and the size of bubbles its acidity. The waters taste as different from each other as wines do. One, from the glaciers of the Lofoten Islands in Norway, does indeed taste like melted snow. Another, from the highest volcano in the Peruvian Andes, is bitter and salty—not your correspondent's favourite. Nico Pieterse, a sommelier who runs a tasting room on South Africa's Western Cape, likes to pair the first with sashimi and the second with fried foods or anchovy pizza. As the attendees sample still and sparkling varieties, Mr Mascha comes by with a spectacular bottle. The 'Fromin" is 15,000-year-old Ice Age water from what is now the Czech Republic. Floating in it are flakes of gold. 'I don't bring wine to parties, I bring this," he says. 'For the rest of the evening no one wants champagne any more." Mr Mascha is a food anthropologist who collected wine before his doctor told him to ditch it. For ten years afterwards he switched to fine water. He was mercilessly mocked: at a live television event in Las Vegas he was given toilet water to taste. Now nearly 40 restaurants, some with Michelin stars, offer full 'water menus", thanks to his evangelising. Youngsters less keen on booze are taking notice. Doran Binder, an effusive blonde-bearded sommelier, has gone viral on TikTok. After buying a failing pub in the English countryside he discovered that his land produced some of the world's 'creamiest" water. He now sells trendy cans of it by subscription. He reckons corporate water companies are scamming people into drinking poison-infused water; restaurants too often ruin the good stuff by serving it with 'chlorinated ice cubes and a slice of fucking lemon". The summit is sponsored by Lake, a cryptocurrency firm that wants to decentralise the water industry. The aqua enthusiasts are eager for more people to invest. Elena Berg, a sommelier who doubles as an environmental scientist at a Parisian college, sees the movement as a way to talk about how precious clean water is as climate change threatens access to it. But to many in Atlanta this weekend it is more about enjoying life's small pleasures. Mr Pieterse, the South African, wants to put scannable barcodes on the bottles so you can listen to the water trickling at its source while sipping it. Doing so would allow customers to simply revel in the fact that they are drinking something that a mammoth once drank, too. Stay on top of American politics with The US in brief, our daily newsletter with fast analysis of the most important political news, and Checks and Balance, a weekly note from our Lexington columnist that examines the state of American democracy and the issues that matter to voters.
Axios
24-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
Why sommeliers are sipping 4,000-year-old iceberg water in Atlanta
Have you ever tasted raindrops from Tasmania that never touched the Earth? Or water that's been locked inside a Norwegian iceberg for millennia? Why it matters: You probably haven't (I haven't). But you also probably haven't been to the Fine Water Summit, a globe-trotting annual gathering of water sommeliers who live, breathe and sip the most luxurious of las aguas. This year's conference — and the crowd-pleaser taste contest — runs April 25-27 in Buckhead. Expect roughly 1,000 bottles of rare, expensive and hard-to-find waters, plus plenty of thirst-quenching and storytelling. How it works: We're not talking about bottled water brands found at Circle K — most of which are just purified tap water, Michael Mascha, the owner of Fine Water Media and summit organizer, told Axios. Premium, or fine, water has terroir and natural minerals thanks to the geology and processes it undergoes, he said. Some brands, like Socosani, which is bottled snowmelt that filtered through volcanic rocks in a remote part of Peru, can be purchased in select local stores. Others, like the magnesium-rich ROI, can cost $200 for a six pack and can only be obtained after a long hero's quest (like a flight to Slovenia or making an online order). Reality check: Plastic bottled water, especially bottles transported halfway around the world for consumption, is bad for the environment. Premium water, most of which is bottled in glass to preserve its characteristics, is intended for special occasions and memorable meals, not everyday use. "I'm not having water shipped from Fiji or New Zealand to make my pasta," said Mascha. "That would be totally stupid." The summit's agenda includes seminars on sustainability, including how to communicate that message to the public. What they're saying:"I'm trying to elevate water away from pure hydration to an experience," Mascha said, adding that some restaurants are adding luxury water to their drink menus to meet increased interest in non-alcoholic options. "Hydration is important, but it's also important that we give value to water, and that we see water in a different way." Catch up quick: Mascha, who co-founded a water sommelier training program in 2018, started exploring and experimenting with water in the early 2000s after his doctor told him to stop drinking wine if he wanted to live. "When I go to a party, I bring a bottle of Svalbarði, the iceberg water, and I tell people, 'This is 4,000-year-old water. This is rain that fell 4,000 years ago.' No one talks about the 50-year-old Burgundy anymore." Zoom in: For the taste awards, a panel of five water sommeliers and experts will sample brands in categories like still, sparkling and naturally carbonated and rank them according to minerality and mouthfeel.
