100 years of Bord’eau
100 years of Bord’eau
16th August 2025 | Posted in NewsWine and Wellness
If you dine in and around Bordeaux, the mineral water may come to your table in a bottle that looks just a Bordeaux wine bottle; straight shoulders, clear glass (sometimes plastic) and in red or white – sorry red or blue – for sparkling or still.
This is Bordeaux water, or pretty close.La Sources des Abatillesis inArcachon, about 60 miles west of the city of Bordeaux on the Atlantic Coast. At this time of year, it feels like Bordeaux, as most of the population decamps there for the summer.
Around 4,000 restaurants, including 20 Michelin stars across the south-west of France, choose these bottles to grace their tables.
Origin
The spring was found by accident in 1923, when a petrochemical engineer was searching for oil. Instead an 8-metre-high jet of water spurted out of the ground at a volume of 70 000 litres an hour. The water had filtered down from the Massif Central mountains, taking 300 years for each kilometre of its journey. It’s this voyage through rock and sand that gives the unique minerality to the water.
Upon the discovery of the mineral content and its therapeutic benefits, the locally owned company started bottling in 1925. They also built a hotel, created a park and a kiosk. In the 1920s these parks and gardens where the place to see and be seen in this elegant seaside town.
Taking the waters in the 1020s
Liver cure
When the hotel closed, the precious water continued to be sold via Pharmacies. Its light mineral content, 354 mg/l of dissolved salts, puts it on a short list of French mineral waters with low mineral content: neutral for the body, easy to eliminate and great for detox. It was promoted for its health benefits, with studies showing it was excellent for kidneys, the liver and even gout – handy in a wine region.
Take the waters
Post-war, in the 1950s, it returned to its function as a ‘cure’, even reimbursed by French national health service – I do love the French. The Vittel water company took over in the 1960s, sadly closing the cure. When in turn, they were bought by Nestlé in the 1990s, they introduced the easily recognisable Frontignan or ‘Bordelaise’ bottle. They used the same mobile bottling lines you still see today at most Bordeaux chateaux.
The Kiosk in the 1930s
and today
Since 2013, the water is in the hands of Jean Merlaut and Hervé Maudet. Merlaut (a great name for anyone in the wine business) is at the head of Taillan Group,a major French wine company and owner of several chateaux, includingChâteau Gruaud Larose, Château Dudon, and Malagar, as well as three wine merchant companies, in the Rhone, the Loire and of course Bordeaux, with Ginestet. Maudet specialises in selling wines to restaurants, which may explain how and why these signature bottles now grace quality restaurants across the region, along with sponsorships for major regional sporting events.
A Eau C
Mineral water or ‘Eau Minérale’, has a legal obligation in France to have a consistent and permanent level of mineral content without filtering, alteration or intervention from aquifer to bottle, and must be qualified as therapeutic by the ‘Academie de Medicine’.
Today, Abatilles water is pumped from the aquifer that lies 472 metres below the sand in the limestone subsoil. Its geographical situation, surrounded by sand dunes with no agricultural activity, means there are zero nitrates. Stored in the aquifer, the mineral elements have remained identical since testing first started 100 years ago in 1925. It’s basically an Eau AOC.
Surrounded by sand dunes, pines and a stones throw from the beach
Sustainable
To protect the precious source and the environment, the 50 people who work here pump less than 40% of the permitted volume. They have reduced the weight of plastic bottles, which are 100% recyclable, both bottles and caps, and are increasing the percentage of glass to plastic bottles, something they can more easily do with restaurants. Bottles are available in half and full bottle size in glass (33, 50 and 75cl) and bottles and magnums (of course) in PET.
The glass bottle range with the celebratory logo
This year Les Abatilles celebrate their 100-year anniversary with a new and discreet ‘100’ logo on the bottles, a limited-edition anniversary bottle only available at ‘La Source’ and a beautifully illustrated book of the history of the source. They remain open to the public Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m.-11.30 a.m., with a guided visit and, yes, a tasting directly from the source in the kiosk, upon reservation at theArcachon Tourist office.
The limited edition collector bottle available at La source along with other 100 year merchandise.
Glass of water glass of wine
InThe Drinking Woman’s Diet,I underline the importance of alternating a glass of wine with a glass of water – what better water to choose than one from Bordeaux?
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