Italy has plenty of wine to get excited about, but it also has less fashionable but equally important Italian beverage traditions.
One of these is bottled water.
Italy is one of the world’s largest bottled water consumers and with all the lovely mountain spring water here, you will understand why.
At the recent Salone del Gusto, or taste event, natural mineral water maker, Lurisia, was present.
Lurisia comes from the Santa Barbara springs in Piedmont and has four different products: glass bottles for daily drinking use, specially designed bottles for restaurant use, and more interestingly is used in products to make Italian chinotto (cola), lemonade (gazzosa) and the beers from Teo Musso.
If you’re interested, the company also has a health spa in Piedmont.
In my sommeliers course in Italy, we learned that for some consumers, water is just as important as any bottle of wine.
This is why Lurisia chooses to bottle in glass, as it’s safer and guarantees a higher quality product.
Water, interestingly, can be matched to food like any glass of wine and Lurisia has two products, Bolle and Stille (sparkling or still), where the sparkling water has natural CO2, and not artificially produced bubbles.