EIRA Delicately Carbonated Sparkling Mineral Water

Eresfjord, delicately carbonated.

EIRA comes from Eresfjord, a village at the head of a Norwegian fjord, and it is among the lightest waters in the world — twenty-two milligrams of dissolved minerals per litre. There is almost nothing in it. That is not a shortcoming; it is the entire achievement, and it takes a particular kind of source to manage it.

The sparkling is the same water with a fine, gentle carbonation laid over it — delicate rather than driving. With so little mineral content beneath, the bubble has nowhere to hide and nothing to fight; it reads as texture rather than force. It is the most weightless sparkling pour in the house.

Effervescence with almost nothing underneath it. A rare and difficult thing.

We do not score. We read. The Reading is how the house locates this bottle — four axes, written on the four petals of the mark.

The Reading™

NOSE    clean

ARC    fine

WEIGHT    delicate

STAY    crisp

One to four petals, quiet to pronounced. A Reading is a location, not a grade.

The bottle — 700 ml · sparkling · 22 mg/L · Eresfjord, Norway.

Read in — the Stem Zero Masterglass. The bowl gathers what little there is and lifts it to the nose before the first sip.

Serve — around 50°F. Cold enough to hold the bead, never so cold the minerality goes numb.