Most Expensive Bottled Water

Janice Kleinschmidt April 11, 2008

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Fancy water that's costlier than wine

A few months ago, Madonna’s pal let it slip that the Material Girlfriend spends $10,000 each month for water blessed by Kabbalah rabbis. Other celebrities—namely Jeff Goldblum, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Naomi Campbell and Liz Taylor—reportedly share Madonna’s appreciation, if not her line-item budget, for the stuff.

When it comes to devotion for premium water, however, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, Berg, a bottled water company in Newfoundland, Canada, harvests the Arctic’s natural product of the Ice Age. Michael Mascha, author of Fine Waters and founder of the FineWaters web site, refreezes iceberg water into cubes and uses it to mix martinis. “If you use a very expensive vodka,” he says, “then you should also pay attention to the water.”

Berg is one of the top 10 exclusive bottled waters named by anthropologist-turned-water-expert Michael Mascha— who, incidentally, declines to comment on Madonna’s drink of choice. “I’m talking about water in the epicurean sense,” he says.

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Bottled water is the next wine, according to Mascha, and like wine, bottled water has terroir, or a sense of place. But unlike wine, he says, “water is really in touch with the ground.” (Except, that is, in the case of Tasmanian Rain and Cloud Juice, two bottled waters from Tasmania that are collected before raindrops hit the soil). “Water is really an expression of the local geology,” says Mascha.

Just as consumers have embraced the concept that chocolate is no longer merely a candy bar stamped “Nestlé” (the world’s largest water bottler, by the way) and salt is more than crystals in a cylinder labeled “Morton’s,” so too are they coming to appreciate the different tastes and “mouthfeel” of premium waters. Says Mascha, “Bottled water is now making the transition from being considered a commodity to being considered a natural product with its own origin.”

While Europe and Japan have long-held traditions of drinking luxury water, Claridge’s in London “changed the landscape of how water is perceived in the U.K.” by introducing a water menu. Other properties decided they must have water menus to be on the same level as the distinguished hotel. On the other side of the Atlantic, plying luxury waters are The Blvd restaurant in the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.; The Water Works Restaurant and Lounge in Philadelphia, Pa.; and The Setai hotel in Miami, Fla.

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