Source Perrier has been the subject of careful study by a generation of scientists. Experts trace it back more than 130 million years to the Cretaceous Era, when limestone deposits formed faults and fissures which captured water deep within the earth.
Today, as it has for millennia, fresh rain falling on the plains and hillsides of Southern France seeps into the limestone, sand and gravel deposits below the Earth’s surface. Moving through this sub-strata, the water is naturally filtered as it acquires the minerals which gives Perrier its character and good taste.
Terrestrial Filtration
Traveling through these layers of porous limestone, cracked marl (a hard, clay-like deposit rich in calcium carbonate) and pure white sand (which sustains the water’s clarity), the water collects at the source near Vergeze.
Nature provides added protection with an eight- to 15-foot layer of impermeable clay, which surrounds the source for several kilometers in all directions, guarding the spring from surface contaminants.
Unique Carbonation
One of Perrier® Carbonated Natural Spring Water's most distinguishing attributes has always been its carbonation. This begins as volcanic magma (molten rock), trapped within the geologic strata.
This magma superheats, and groundwater beneath the Perrier spring that permeates the calcium carbonate layers, forms carbonation gas. This carbonated gas rises to mingle and carbonate the mineral water (in other words, the spring is carbonated while still underground!). Up through the last century, in fact, they formed a cool, bubbling pool (“Les Bouillens”) in which locals and health-seekers often bathed.
A desire for consistency, plus Perrier’s growing public demands as a international beverage, led French scientists to devise a more efficient means to capture the water’s perfect balance of minerals and carbonation and maintain consistency. By the end of the 19th century, the water and gas were collected separately and combined at the bottling plant under conditions likened to those once found within the source.
This procedure has been modernized since then, of course. Both the water and carbonic gas are still harvested independently. They come from isolated points at different depths, within the same geologic formation. Before they come together for bottling, a filter is used to remove any natural impurities in the gas.