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Water
Sommeliers
Meet Filip Wretman who will be your
sommelier tonight.
Would you like to look at the list, the
26-year-old Swede inquires, or might he suggest a coy little sipper with
some mineral notes, a velvet texture and a long finish? Oh, and while you're
deciding, would you also like some wine with your meal?
Wretman's eyes have the blue serenity of
mountain lakes as he talks about being the first water sommelier at the lush
Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York City. "Water is the essence of
life," Wretman says. "Bottled water has been neglected too
long."
He shakes his head and, with a bemused
chuckle, recalls the days when he, too, drank tap water. Tap water, he
shudders, can be recycled as many as seven times before it flushes out of
your faucet. Drinking it is the kind of mistake we all make when we're
young.
 
Of course, the Ritz-Carlton isn't the
only place where water is the new wine. At Manhattan's Alain Ducasse, the
French restaurant awarded four stars by The New York Times, once they've
wafted the tray of black truffles under your nose to lure you Périgord
Piper-style after the tasting menu, they bring around a silver basket with
six bottles of the restaurant's best waters in elegant repose. Across the
pond, in Paris, many stylish restaurants now offer a carte des eaux: The
chic department store Colette, on the fashionable Rue St-Honoré, has a
water bar with about 90 selections from which to choose. Mon cher, it's no
longer enough to be a wine snob; now you must also be an aqua expert.
Wasn't water once that wet stuff that
fell from the sky, rushed down the river and ran from the faucet? And wasn't
it free, or just pennies a glass? That's so '90s, darling: In cities like
New York and Paris, and even Toronto, water is not just water any more. With
more than 700 brands of bottled H2O produced worldwide now, eau de bouteille
has reached a high-water mark.
The trend is simply a fact of life in
Europe, where 90% of French and Italians drink bottled water, and have done
so for years. In North America, where 70% of us drink bottled water, more
than 13 billion litres are consumed every year. Sales have been growing at
about 10% annually for a decade, faster than any other beverage, and the
industry is now worth nearly $7-billion in North America alone. That figure
makes the continent the largest market for water in the world -- but there's
still room for enormous growth, given that, on average, we drink only about
five of the recommended eight glasses of water per day. But we're catching
up: In three years, market analysts expect bottled water to overtake coffee
to become the second-most-consumed beverage after tap water (regular or
filtered).
There are several reasons why, lately,
people are hitting the water bottle. The most serious one is safety -- no
longer a trivial issue after the failure of the municipal water system in
Walkerton, Ontario. And post-September 11, the threat of bio-terrorism
lingers. (However, bottled water itself isn't immune to contamination: In
1990, traces of benzene were discovered in Perrier, which resulted in a
global product recall that cost the company $43-million and significant
brand share.)
Still, bottled water, because it's
classified as a food product, must meet the quality standards of the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency; and many bottled water companies also
follow voluntary guidelines set by the Canadian Bottled Water Association.
Then there are the health benefits of
water, of which people are aware. In fact, business people who want to
impress clients with the depth of their dedication now pull a reverse-Cana
miracle, substituting water for wine at lunch and dinner meetings.
Bottled water is a calorie-free
indulgence -- a measly five-ounce glass of wine, by contrast, has 100
calories. And it's perceived as more nutritive -- "enhanced
waters" now offer such trimmings as calcium (popular with pregnant
women), soy, vitamins, vegetable extract (The Coca-Cola Company makes
"Water Salad"), ginkgo biloba, echinacea and a high-octane blend
of potassium, calcium and magnesium called Glaceau SmartWater. There's even
high-oxygen water. (Although, high-oxygen water has so far proven beneficial
only to fish. We sub-optimized humans must take our oxygen from the air.)
The idea for a water sommelier first came
to Nikheel Advani, the Ritz-Carlton's food and beverage manager, about a
year ago, before the hotel opened. While dining with several Goldman Sachs
bankers at a downtown restaurant, Advani noticed that the Wall Street boys
all ordered sparkling water. It occurred to him that, although the sale of
water in the hotel chain was growing by about 5% per year, it might be
possible to increase that figure to as much as 20% in New York City,
especially in Battery Park, near the financial district.
Meanwhile, Filip Wretman knew from the
moment he first heard of plans to open the hotel that he wanted to be part
of it. The son of one of Stockholm's leading chefs, Wretman had attended Les
Roches hotel school in Switzerland, and had worked in resorts in the Swiss
Alps, Manila and St. Bart's before becoming the first bar manager at the
horrendously hip Hudson Hotel in New York. Wretman started as the bar
manager when the Ritz opened in January 2002 -- an opening that was delayed
several months due to September 11. (Most of the hotel windows open up to
sun-flecked views of the New York Harbor, with a burnished Verrazano Bridge
and the silhouetted Statue of Liberty. At the back, though, a few windows
look down on the gaping wound in the ground where the World Trade Center
used to stand.)
Advani shared his plans to appoint a
water sommelier with Wretman, who would be the first to fill the position.
In February, the two men assembled and tasted 1,800 still and sparkling
waters from around the world. They selected three cultivated still waters
(Voss, Fiji and Evian) and three distinguished sparkling waters (San
Pellegrino, Perrier and Acqua della Madonna) to become the hotel's standard
selections. Give them 48 hours notice, says Advani, and they can tap any of
50 waters. (That should please Michael Jackson, who orders 32 cases of Evian
at a time -- he bathes in it.)
In the hotel, where rooms cost as much as
$7,000 per night, it's a rounding error to pay $15 for a bottle of water. So
you go with the flow and peruse the restaurant's list of still and sparkling
waters. Each was bottled during an exceptionally good month, and Wretman can
reel off their mineral, sodium and calcium levels as well as their elusive
aromas, which don't include hints of rusting pipes or swimming pools. (There
are no offerings by the glass unless you want tap, referred to here as, ugh,
Château Bloomberg.)
Make a good choice, and Wretman will
share some water gossip with you. Among the purest waters in the world, for
instance, is the Norwegian artesian water Voss. It's taken from a virgin
aquifer (translation: a very clean underground well) and bottled before it's
sullied by exposure to the air. Voss is the number one non-alcoholic pick of
Madonna (she won't stay in hotels that don't stock it), as well as U2's
Bono. Even the bottle, designed by the former creative director at Calvin
Klein, quietly suggests how much more evolved you are than the amateurs at
the next table swigging from the tap: It's a cross between a cologne bottle,
a time capsule and household cleaner. (Several diners have tucked the bottle
into a briefcase or newspaper to take it away with them.)
On this late spring evening, Wretman
suggests starting with a preprandial sparkling water, a slightly chilled San
Pellegrino, with graceful bubbles that aren't too bloating. (For goodness
sake, don't ask for ice cubes in it; you may as well drink from a dirty
glass.) Then, perhaps, you can progress to a still water that won't cloud
your taste buds. Fiji water comes from rain that fell 450 years ago on the
pristine South Pacific island. (It promises that with every sip you'll
"sense the soft air and the gentle rain of the islands.") To
finish, try Perrier with your cheese or chocolate soufflé: You'll need
"aggressive" bubbles to cleanse your palate. Whatever you choose,
Wretman suggests that you skip the Evian, which he dislikes the way some
oenophiles dislike retsina. He finds it overpowering and metallic.
(Nonetheless, the hotel offers it since it is the top-selling still water in
the world.)
The Ritz's waters are tame compared to
the multitude of options on the market today. Cloud Juice guarantees 800
drops of Tasmanian rainwater per bottle and Lurisia is melted Italian snow
water that seeps up through a volcanic rock grotto that Marie Curie
discovered in 1918 when she was searching for uranium. She called it "a
miracle of purity." (Today, the company president would, no doubt, call
it "a miracle of profitability.") Chatledon, one of the oldest and
most exclusive eaux minérales, from a village in Auvergne, is coveted
because it has no taste. Back in 1650, the court doctor at Versailles
presented the water to the Sun King, Louis XIV, promising that it would
"cure His Majesty sometimes, often alleviate his distress, and comfort
him always."
Here in North America, Iceberg Water is
reaching new peaks of popularity. It's harvested from "stray bergy
bits" that break off icebergs around the coast of Newfoundland. Canada,
in fact, is a champion in the bottled-water Olympics: At last year's
International Water Tasting Awards, held in West Virginia, Blue Moon Water
Systems from Brandon, Man., tied for gold with Cherokee Bottled Water from
North Carolina in the purified drinking water category; in the
non-carbonated bottled-water category, Canadian Mountain came second and
Whistler Water Pure Glacial Spring Water placed fourth; and in the municipal
tap water category, the Quebec towns of Barraute and Senneterre placed first
and second, respectively.
Some, at least, think that these waters,
dubbed "white petrol" by their gleeful marketers, actually taste
different. Some, at least, think so. Arthur von Wiesenberger, who carries
the title Water Master, is one of the few water critics in the U.S., and the
author of four books, including Oasis: The Complete Guide to Bottled Water.
He believes that, with practice, most people can develop a palate for
differentiating between waters. "Each one is unique," he says.
"Badoit has a very gentle level of carbonation -- natural and excellent
with food. Volvic is light and almost sweet in taste -- very refreshing and
great to drink, even at room temperature. Trinity is a very interesting
water with a silky texture. I feel healthy drinking it."
As a boy, Wiesenberger, whose father was
an investment banker, spent time in the larger cities of Italy, France and
Switzerland, where bottled water is consumed daily. Even then, he kept a
water journal, noting the brands he liked best. "Heck, my Dalmatian
could tell the difference between bottled and tap water, even when I
switched them in different bowls," he says. "And Dalmatians aren't
that smart -- they're the dogs running toward a fire when everyone else is
running the other way."
- - -
But do the bottled waters have any real,
added health benefits? That hasn't been scientifically proven. New York
City's municipal water, called the champagne of tap water, is actually
considered among the best in world in terms of both taste and purity.
Similarly, in London, England, the British magazine Health Which? found that
tap water from the Thames tasted better and was cleaner than several leading
bottled-water brands that were 400 times more expensive.
Nevertheless, soft-drink companies,
viewing bottled water as the next battleground for market share and a way to
pump up their dehydrated soda business, are joining the fray, even if
PepsiCo's Aquafina and Coca-Cola's Dasani are both purified tap water, not
spring water. (In fact, 25% of bottled water is conditioned municipal
water.)
Most of the best-selling bottled waters
are owned by a few companies. Danone International's stable includes Dannon,
Evian, Ferrarelle, Volvic, Crystal Springs, Badoit and Naya. The biggest
player is the European packaged-food giant Nestlé: It owns about 15% of the
market worldwide with such brands as Perrier, San Pellegrino, Acqua Panna,
Calistoga, Arrowhead, Deer Park, Zephyrhills, Buxton, Poland Spring and
Vittel.
As diners covet these brands, bottlers
and restaurateurs salivate over the profits. A restaurant's typical markup
on wine is 100% to 150%, whereas on bottled water, it's often 300% to 500%.
But since water is much cheaper than wine, and many of the fancier brands
aren't available in stores, most diners don't notice or seem to care. As a
result, some restaurants are working hard to sell bottled water. According
to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal, some of the more shameless
tactics include placing attractive bottles on the table (the "table
plant" for a visual sell); listing the water brands on the menu without
prices; urging diners to buy both a sparkling and a still water at dinner;
serving water in crystal goblets as if it were fine wine; refilling glasses
after just a few sips (something most servers wouldn't do with alcohol); and
pouring bottled water without asking the diners if they even want it.
The manufacturers also suggest some
subtle approaches. Perrier's training material, for example, advises
waitstaff that they stand to earn an extra $100 per month in tips just by
switching 20 guests per shift from tap to bottled water. Similarly, San
Pellegrino's training video encourages waiters to "own the water
glass." Nestlé hopes to own the sippy cup too. Building on its
strength in marketing to parents of infants and to children themselves, this
spring, the company launched a water brand called Billy Buxton in the U.K.
aimed at "young users" -- nursery-school children. Billy Buxton,
"an active little fellow," will compete with Highland Spring's
Looney Tunes water.
But not everyone is on board. At the New
York City restaurant Eleven Madison Park, sommelier Steve Beckta spares his
guests the ignominy of saying "tap water" by asking them if they'd
prefer mineral or ice water. "Most servers don't go home to their
apartment in Queens and throw back a litre of Badoit, so who are we trying
to kid?" he says.
There's a bigger complaint against the
trend toward bottled water: Even though the bottles can be recycled, the new
fad creates enormous packaging waste. According to the World Wildlife Fund,
only a fraction of the 1.5 million tons of plastic water bottles produced
are recycled -- and we pay more for the bottles than for the water itself.
Then there's the political angle: Some wet blankets insist on pointing out
the travesty of the Western world paying billions for designer water, while
more than a billion people in underdeveloped countries have no access to
clean water at all.
In North America, land of clean running
streams and clear consciences, the popularity of bottled water taps into our
desire for better health, our wish to appear cultivated and even a longing
for lost purity. While some may feel like strangling the water sommelier
with a tastevin, there's no denying that the concept is borne on the
unstoppable wave of bottled water's popularity. But spend a long evening
sampling waters, and such thoughts are washed away by a far more pressing
fluid-related problem.
DRINK UP: From dehydration to bladder
cancer, hunger pangs to fuzzy memory, water is a salve for much of what ails
us
According to Bottled Water Web (www.bottledwaterweb.com),
75% of North Americans are chronically dehydrated. Every day, adults lose
about a litre (five glasses) of fluid, just from perspiring and urinating,
and that fluid needs to be replaced. Even mild dehydration slows down the
metabolism by as much as 3%; and a 2% drop in body water triggers fuzzy
short-term memory, trouble with basic math and difficulty focusing on the
computer screen or the printed page. Lack of water is the first trigger of
daytime fatigue, and it also causes muscle trouble: Up to 80% of those who
suffer back and joint pain could significantly ease their pain with eight to
ten glasses of water a day. Drinking five glasses of water a day helps to
decrease the risk of colon cancer by 45%, breast cancer by 79% and bladder
cancer by 50%, according to some medical studies.
As well, there's a relationship between
thirst and hunger pangs: More than a third of us regularly mistake our
thirst for hunger. A University of Washington study found that one glass of
water shuts down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of dieters. But it's
not just water that can keep you hydrated. Other sources of fluid include
juice, milk and even less-obvious edibles such as bread and vegetables. Nor
is caffeine necessarily the diuretic villain we thought it was: According to
the World Health Organization, new research has shown that tea, coffee and
cola drinks can replenish body fluids just as well as water. A study in the
Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that drinking only cola
or caffeinated drinks had no greater effect on the dehydration of young men
than if they drank water.
How much fluid people need depends on
several factors, such as weight and exercise. An air-conditioned office can
aggravate dehydration; and those who head to the gym should drink a half-litre
of fluid first. You should also weigh yourself before and after exercise to
ensure you've replaced lost fluid. The bottom line: If your urine is a pale
straw colour, you're well hydrated, if it's a darker yellow, you need water.
But if you're not sure you're getting enough fluid, check the hydration
calculator on m the International Bottled Water Association's Web site at
www.bottledwater.org.
TASTING NOTES: Lost in a sea of
designer-water options? Our eauologist determines how a range of
international choices stands up
Water: Dasani
Provenance: North America
Tasting Notes: Neutral nose. Transparent
hue. A sheer, elegant nothingness to it.
Water: Evian
Provenance: Evian, France
Tasting Notes: Evian Evian, France Eyes
shut tight, I'm trying very hard to detect those metallic nuances that finer
palates say are obvious. Perhaps it's time for a career change, but, then
again, as they say, Evian spelled backwards is naive.
Water: Crystal
Provenance: Quebec
Tasting Notes: A coy little water. I
think you'll be amused by its pretension. A touch medicinal, perhaps; drink
just before an operation.
Water: President's Choice Iceberg
Provenance: Newfoundland
Tasting Notes: A versatile water that
would pair well with wild boar, ostrich or anything else in the
frozen-dinner section.
Water: Fiji Water
Provenance: Fiji
Tasting Notes: A skimpy bikini of a
water, with a sunset finish.
Water: Voss
Provenance: Norway
Tasting Notes: When you can't afford to
wear haute couture, you can always drink this.
Water: Chatledon
Provenance: Auvergne, France
Tasting Notes: It may have been the Sun
King's water, but, as the saying goes, the emperor has no clothes -- or
taste.
Water: Acqua della Madonna
Provenance: Campania, Italy
Tasting Notes: Mamma mia! A felicity of
bubblicity. What else would one drink when wearing a 600-thread Brioni
shirt?
Water: San Pellegrino
Provenance: San Pellegrino, Italy
Tasting Notes: Bubbles, like grace notes,
play Handel's Water Music upon my tongue. If it were a wine, its tannins
would be well integrated.
Water: President's Choice
Provenance: Italian Alps Frizzante
Tasting Notes: President's Choice Italian
Alps Frizzante Northern Italy Memories of fizzled conver sations and flat
ideas. This is a middling, lightly carbonated water that doesn't seem to go
one way or the other.
Water: Perrier
Provenance: Perrier, France
Tasting Notes: These bubbles aren't just
aggressive; they're downright hostile -- stinging the top of my mouth and
tongue.
Water: Merit Selection
Provenance: Quebec
Tasting Notes: Another bubble bully
without much finesse. This could elbow its way in beside a Montrachet -- and
kick it over when you're not looking.
Water: Chateau Canuck filtered
Provenance: Canada
Tasting Notes: It's just fine, though not
as tasteless and soft as its bottled brethren.
Water: Chateau Canuck unfiltered
Provenance: Canada
Tasting Notes: Chateau Canuck unfiltered
Canada Its cloudy appearance evokes mist-covered mornings in the Rockies. A
nasty little water that reminds me of the greenish gunk in canned peas.
Don't wash glasses in this.
Source: Natalie Maclean
DRINK UP: From dehydration to bladder
cancer, hunger pangs to fuzzy memory, water is a salve for much of what ails
us
According to Bottled Water Web (www.bottledwaterweb.com),
75% of North Americans are chronically dehydrated. Every day, adults lose
about a litre (five glasses) of fluid, just from perspiring and urinating,
and that fluid needs to be replaced. Even mild dehydration slows down the
metabolism by as much as 3%; and a 2% drop in body water triggers fuzzy
short-term memory, trouble with basic math and difficulty focusing on the
computer screen or the printed page. Lack of water is the first trigger of
daytime fatigue, and it also causes muscle trouble: Up to 80% of those who
suffer back and joint pain could significantly ease their pain with eight to
ten glasses of water a day. Drinking five glasses of water a day helps to
decrease the risk of colon cancer by 45%, breast cancer by 79% and bladder
cancer by 50%, according to some medical studies.
As well, there's a relationship between
thirst and hunger pangs: More than a third of us regularly mistake our
thirst for hunger. A University of Washington study found that one glass of
water shuts down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of dieters. But it's
not just water that can keep you hydrated. Other sources of fluid include
juice, milk and even less-obvious edibles such as bread and vegetables. Nor
is caffeine necessarily the diuretic villain we thought it was: According to
the World Health Organization, new research has shown that tea, coffee and
cola drinks can replenish body fluids just as well as water. A study in the
Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that drinking only cola
or caffeinated drinks had no greater effect on the dehydration of young men
than if they drank water.
How much fluid people need depends on
several factors, such as weight and exercise. An air-conditioned office can
aggravate dehydration; and those who head to the gym should drink a half-litre
of fluid first. You should also weigh yourself before and after exercise to
ensure you've replaced lost fluid. The bottom line: If your urine is a pale
straw colour, you're well hydrated, if it's a darker yellow, you need water.
But if you're not sure you're getting enough fluid, check the hydration
calculator on the International Bottled Water Association's Web site at www.bottledwater.org.
- By Natalie MacLean
Saturday
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