Water is wine in this valley of Stellenbosch

This month, I took a quiet detour to Stellenbosch, a valley of wine.

But I went in search of something more elemental — water. After tasting different glasses of water, and then a glass of wine, I concluded that “water is not just water”.

At the Lanzerac Wine Estate, water sommelier Nico Pieterse led a 45-minute tasting of six waters, from Romanian spring water to Icelandic glacier water – and even tap water. Pieterse described his water tasting room as “the world’s first”.

The session taught me how to pick up colour, aroma, and mouthfeel, and how minerals and geology influence taste. Pieterse, an international water judge and former beer brewer, enthusiastically narrated the stories behind each water. In the end, I felt that a necessity had been turned into a deliberate ritual.

The Fine Water Tasting Room was filled with a soft hum of music, the kind often heard in massage parlours. The shelves were lined with dozens of bottled waters, one of which, Pieterse said, contained 200,000-year-old glacier water.

One remark that caught my attention was his observation that “you can pair water with food and brandy”. Each sip of wine tasted different after mouthfuls of the various types of water.

“I am happy to have the Fine Water Tasting Room, it is a proud South African first and the world’s first, and it is cool to have,” said Pieterse.

“Water is not just water. Water from every single source in the world tastes different because of the minerals in the soil. Every source has different minerals.”

Pieterse said he had to shut down his brewery when the pandemic hit in 2019/20. He decided to study beer’s most important ingredient — water — and has not looked back.

The experience also taught me that not every bottle labelled “mineral water” contains what it claims.

“Minerals in water are measured in total dissolved solids [TDS],” he said. “The higher the TDS, the more hydration you get and the more minerals you get, and the stronger the water will taste. I have water from the Lofoten Islands in Norway. It is a 200,000-year-old glacier water. Rain fell as water 200,000 years ago, because a glacier, and now glaciers, are melting, and they bottled it before it went to the ocean and became salt water. And when you have a bottle like this one on your table, you become emotionally connected to the water because you sometimes think that it fell on the soil 200,000 years ago.”

After learning about TDS, I tried to analyse every drop of water passing over my palate and I became more engaged when Pieterse spoke about pairing water with food.

Each sip became a small experiment in teasing out the different minerals, while the setting of the historic mountainside farm added to the quiet reflection.

“I pair it with food, I pair it with wine, I pair it with whisky, I pair it with brandy — and whatever I can lay my hands on,” he said. “I elevate the flavours of the food with water, wine, whisky and brandy because the minerals in the water can do that.”

The tasting mirrored a wine flight, with different glasses lined up on the bar.

Then came the key instruction: smell the water for its subtle scents, drink it slowly, and feel its texture. The differences between the still and sparkling samples were clear, with some sparkling waters showing higher levels of bicarbonate.

By the end, I felt the learning and tasting experience was worth the visit and cost.