The word terroir comes from French and is associated with food and wine. UNESCO give an internationally recognised definition as an alliance between the human involvement and territory, and involves production, culture, landscape and legacy.
When it comes to wine, first and foremost we speak about the overall conditions of cultivating the grapes: type and soil composition, slope, insolation, position next to rivers and lakes, diurnal differences etc. Second of all, we talk about socio-cultural factors.
Then, there's terroir in food.
When it comes to food, there is more to talk about, but in short - it's about local taste.
So we speak about terroir when we talk about food, wine, even olive oil. But what about water?
The title steals the show - water has terroir. As described above, terroir encompasses all natural and socio-cultural conditions that give quality and taste to the product.
When we speak about water, natural conditions include: the soil that the water source flows through, the way it surfaces, the climate conditions that it meets along the way, closeness to seas and oceans, altitude, salts and minerals it gathers.
Socio-cultural factors include: the history of the source, the way people used the water before, the way the source was discovered, pollution, and how the source was exploited before.
This is the way we should analyze all waters we drink daily. All of the above make bottled waters unique and of great value. We actually go through this process unwillingly when eating, drinking wine, of even while enjoying salt. Let's offer water its rightful place at the gastronomical table.
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