Water is rarely spoken of in terms of vintage or terroir, unless a source is distinctive enough to demand it. This episode of Sensing Up turns that vocabulary toward a spring on the Yorke Peninsula, where a family has spent nearly two decades learning to taste, describe and finally bottle what lies beneath their land.
Damien Smith is the founder of Carribie Mineral Water, drawn from a single aquifer on his family's remote Yorke Peninsula property. Carribie takes its name from the local word for where the emu drinks. With a background in wine, including a career at Moët Hennessy Australia, Damien first recognised the property's water as something worth taking seriously. Together with his wife Gretchen, training to become Australia's first female water sommelier, he is building the world's first terroir mineral water estate.
Tasted from a wine glass, Carribie's structure becomes obvious: an initial sweetness from natural sodium chloride, a savoury mid-palate, and a lingering, glycerous finish. Valérie and Damien tasted the still and sparkling side by side, drawing comparisons to fine wine, and arrived at the same conclusion: a source this distinctive earns the language of terroir.
Water featured in this episode:
Valérie Henbest is a French-Australian cheese specialist, importing 10+ tonnes of French cheese monthly and selling at Smelly Cheese Shop, Adelaide Central Market.
Sensing Up is a space to slow down, pay attention and let the senses lead.
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