The Fine Water Society scale: how fine water is classified worldwide

The fine water category operates with its own vocabulary. Those who work with wine learn denominations of origin; those who work with coffee learn sensory notes; those who work with fine water learn, before anything else, a scale. The Fine Water Society scale organizes bottled waters by total dissolved solids — TDS, in milligrams per liter — and divides the universe into five bands. It is simple vocabulary, and it is the starting point of any serious water menu.

The Fine Water Society

The Fine Water Society was founded in 2008 by Michael Mascha, an Austrian journalist who dedicated most of his career to documenting bottled waters in editorial register. The organization functions today as the informal but recognized reference of the category — it maintains a global directory of fine waters, organizes the annual Fine Water Awards, and trains water-specialized sommeliers through its own course.

The Society's most useful contribution to fine dining is not the ranking nor the awards. It is the scale. By reducing the mineral complexity of a water to a single parameter — TDS — and organizing it into five bands with identifiable taste, the Society made organized comparison possible between waters of very different origins. Organized comparison, in turn, is what allows a sommelier to build a water menu that makes sense to the diner.

The scale in five levels

The scale is direct:

Super Low covers waters with TDS below 50 mg/L. The taste is close to neutral, the finish clean, mineral presence absent. It is a narrow band — few waters in the world fall within it. Good for harmonizing with delicate plates, mineral white wines, and moments when water needs to recede.

Low runs from 50 to 250 mg/L. Discreet mineral content, subtle presence. This is the band where most premium European bottled waters sit. Voss Still and Acqua Panna occupy this territory. Functions as a universal table water.

Medium covers 250 to 800 mg/L. Perceptible mineral content, body in the palate. Holds plates of medium intensity, such as pasta, poultry, more robust fish. Evian, Fiji and some Italian sparkling waters sit here.

High covers 800 to 1,500 mg/L. Clear mineral content, often with citric or ferrous notes. Calls for plates that engage in dialogue — cured cheeses, cured meats, red meat. San Pellegrino sits in this band.

Very High is everything above 1,500 mg/L. These are waters with their own pronounced taste, almost charged, which some cultures consume as digestive or tonic. Vichy Catalan and Gerolsteiner are examples.

Where AWA sits on the scale

AWA operates in the Super Low band. The laboratory report from the laboratory that conducts our physico-chemical analysis registers TDS in the order of 6 mg/L — well below the upper limit of the category. The range varies slightly between productions, as in any natural water, but always within the Super Low interval.

The scarcity of the category is part of what makes the positioning relevant. Super Low waters are few in the world because most natural sources carry some mineral content from contact with soil, rock or aquifer. AWA operates with mineral content this low precisely because the capture is atmospheric — the water never touches the soil. Svalbarði, in Norway, operates a different principle (glacial ice collected in the Arctic) with similar TDS results. The two brands occupy the same numerical band, but narrate completely distinct origins.

How the sommelier uses the scale

In a serious water menu, the scale serves as a curatorial map. A well-built menu tends to offer at least one example of each band, with possible absence only at the extremes (Very High is niche, and some venues choose not to work with such heavily mineralized waters).

Harmonization operates on a simple principle: a delicate plate calls for low TDS, a robust plate holds or calls for medium to high TDS. But the more experienced sommelier reads the scale as a map of personality — two Super Low waters are not interchangeable in a menu, however close the number, because each narrates a distinct origin. Svalbarði narrates the Arctic. AWA narrates the Amazon. The choice between them is a narrative decision, not a technical one.

Limits of the scale

TDS is an aggregate number. It tells how much total mineral content is present, but does not tell which specific mineral profile. A water with 200 mg/L can be dominated by calcium bicarbonate (mild taste) or by sulfates (more astringent taste). For the sommelier, the number is a starting point — not absolute truth. Complete reading requires a detailed laboratory report.

But as a starting point, the Fine Water Society scale is the most useful instrument the category has produced. It reduces noise, organizes conversation, makes teaching possible. In a field where the vocabulary is still forming, this is worth a great deal.