Inspired by the recent deluge and the approach of Easter, this month I’m turning wine into water. That’s not to say I haven’t been drinking the former, but being surrounded by the latter for so many days got me thinking about the latter, specifically bottled mineral water.

On family holidays to France, we children were warned by our parents not to drink the tap water – apparently no one did. The toilets were not to be trusted either, but that’s another story. The family would load up with bottles of eau mineral, I forget what brand back then but I liked mine with sirop de menthe, my brother preferred grenadine. Sometimes, if we were good, it would be mixed with red wine – it’s actually a very refreshing combination. I’ve since learned to drink the stuff neat and it’s fascinating how much variation exists.

Enter the beverage aisle of your average French supermarché and you are confronted by palettes of shrink-wrapped packs offering various essential minerals from various regions of France. I’m not a huge fan of Evian, it tastes of water. Likewise, Perrier, which tastes of water, but with bubbles. Once you go beyond the mass brands, things get more interesting.

I seem to recall my father calling it Vichy water, presumably because so much of it comes from the region around Vichy in the Massif Central (yes, the capital of unoccupied France during WW2). I always liked Volvic from the volcanic rocks of that region, flat but with character. Vittel was a wannabe Evian to me. If I was in the mood for sparkling I’d go with Badoit which is naturally sparkling and apparently, very hard. St Yorre was a good one too, saltier.

When I first arrived in Australia water was something you swam in, washed in or drank from a tap. Apart from the odd swanky restaurant serving small bottles of Perrier, you would never find water in a bottle. After all, why would you pay good money for something you could get pretty much for free from a tap?

Times have changed. In 2015 we drank roughly 30 litres per person and spent over $2 billion on bottled water. Much more than 30 years prior, but still a drop in the ocean compared to the rest of the world – in 2019 the French averaged 133 litres of the stuff each. Sacré eau!

But unlike the French we import most of it. All those bottles from Fiji, Italy, France and Norway going to landfill here. All the emissions released on the journey. Maybe we should return to the tap?

I usually do in restaurants. I’ve also bought a soda stream, but it never feels quite right. But I have found an Australian water I’d be proud to drink. It’s called Yaru water and it comes from a spring near Mount Warning in Northern NSW (Volcanic rocks again). It’s a mineral water that gives health benefits to indigenous communities as well as consumers and you can buy it at Coles.

But let’s not forget to buy wine as well for it seems a glass of wine can help lower the risks of dementia. Can any mineral water claim that?