**Bottled Water from Spain

Bottled Water from Spain

Spanish Bottled Water - Outstanding Mineral Waters
 
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Vichy Catalan

Spring Water - Sparkling

 
Vichy Catalan Bottled Water

Balance ClassicClassic
Virginality Virginality 1 - 5 Diamonds
Minerality Very High
Orientation Alkaline
Hardness Hard
Naturally
Carbonated:
Rare Naturally Carbonated Water


Vichy Catalan Bottled Water Info Country of Origin: Spain
  Region: Catalonia
  Place Name: Caldes de Malavella
  Web Site: www.espanabrands.com
 
Company:  Espana Brands
phone:  858.259.1474
fax:  858.259.1477
email:  info@espanabrands.com
 
 
Vichy Catalan
  The most recognized mineral water from Spain. Vichy Catalan is a very high mineral content water with natural carbonation. The water is also very high in Sodium and Bicarbonates (advantages for digestion) and low in Calcium and Magnesium for such a high mineral content water.

Remains from prehistory and from Roman times indicate that the area around Caldes de Malavella had been continuously inhabited up to today. There is no doubt that the surfacing of hot thermal water has been the main attraction of the area. The bottling of Vichy Catalan started in 1889 and soon a spa was erected to accommodate the many visitors wanting “to take to the waters”. Hot, effervescent water is bubbling from many sources in the area. All springs are coming from the same aquifer but with slightly different mineral compositions. The source for Vichy Catalan has been capped and water and gas is collected separately. The water is allowed to cool and the gas is then re-injected just prior to bottling.


Distributor Vichy Catalan Where to Buy Vichy Catalan:
Where to Buy Vichy Catalan in the US Aqua Maestro (USA)
Buy Vichy Catalan at Aqua Maestro Purchase hard-to-find bottled waters online through Aqua Maestro, a distributor with a large portfolio.

aquadeli (New Zealand)
Aquadeli is New Zealand's first water concept store, with a large range of mineral and spring waters.

 
Vichy Catalan Analysis BOTTLED WATER ANALYSIS:
milligrams per liter (mg/l)
2900 TDS
8.3 ph factor
14 Calcium
680 Chlorides
2081 Bicarbonate
6.4 Magnesium
0.06 Nitrate
44 Potassium
1100 Sodium
46 Sulphates
61 Hardness
 
  History
The history of Vichy Catalán in the 19th Century is closely linked with doctor Modest Furest i Roca, as he was behind a number of reforms and improvements in public health provisions in the city of Girona, and was interested in hydrotherapy in general. On one of his visits to nearby villages he came to Caldes de Malavella.

A group of scholars from Girona had discovered a series of remains from prehistory and from Roman times showing how that place had been continuously inhabited, this no doubt being linked to the surfacing of thermal water there. Moreover, folk wisdom had always attributed curative properties to those waters.

Doctor Furest acquired the properties that included the springs and the adjacent land in 1880. In 1889 a two-storey building was erected on the hill to house the bottling plant. At that time, mineral waters were sold through pharmacy outlets, shops for house-keeping products, and mineral-water depots, and sales were backed by placing press advertisements aimed at medical practitioners and patients.

In view of the great influx of visitors, the building of the spa became a pressing need. The first section of the new spa, the Balneario Vichy Catalán, was officially opened in1898.

Sociedad Anónima Vichy Catalán, was formed on 16 June 1900, with inputs from Bonaventura Blay i Milà, Josep Ferrer i Torralbas, Josep Serradell i Amich and Josep Vias Camps, all of whom were americanos – men returning from the Americas, and Cuba in particular, having made their fortunes there. The new company set up its headquarters in Barcelona.

One of the first tasks to be tackled by the new company was enlarging the spa. The spa extension was completed by the start of the 1904 season, and that date marks the start of a period of nearly three decades in which the El Vichy Catalán spa enjoyed the finest moments in its history, thanks to the clients who thronged to the spa and to the popularity and prestige of the establishment, particularly with the Catalan middle classes.

In 1905 the need to build a new bottling plant made itself apparent, since the old plant could not cope with the demand, and its machinery had become obsolete. By 1907 the new building for the bottling works was nearly finished, and the machinery was installed soon after. Over the next three decades, the machinery was to undergo constant renovation, adapting to new times and enabling output to be increased.

This highly favourable atmosphere of constant growth was punctured in 1936 when the Spanish Civil War broke out, bring irreversible changes both for the spa and for the bottling section. The company Sociedad Anónima Vichy Catalán was confiscated and the spa became a military hospital.

After the war, the forties proved to be a time of laborious recovery. Despite the economic difficulties of the country, the company resumed its work; output and sales climbed back, and efforts were made to renew the machinery. Meanwhile, the spa was leased out, and was not under the direct management of the company for many years.

In the nineteen fifties, the company enjoyed consolidation as a pioneer company in the bottled drinks market.

The bottling lines continued to be renewed on a number of occasions in the 1960s, with the premises also being adapted to meet the requirements of the new consumer society. For its part, the spa was still leased out, and then, during the fifties, sixties and particularly the seventies, it had to face competition from tourism.

In the 80's, the company also gave special attention to relaunching the services that had made the Vichy Catalán spa famous, this at a time when society was also demanding better quality of life, and when the physical wellbeing of people was coming to be seen as a treasured asset that had to be preserved.

That was how the spa’s Delicius Restaurant came into being, its vocation being to supply gastronomic satisfaction to the regular customers of the Spa and to all gourmets curious to acquaint themselves with a typically Mediterranean, innovative haute cuisine and finding a place for itself in the Best-Restaurants list drawn up by the culinary institute Fundació Institut Català de la Cuina.

Finally, in the 1990s – more precisely in February 1990 – the formation of the group Grupo Vichy Catalán was consolidated, bringing together the companies S.A. Vichy Catalán, Malavella, S.A., Fontdor, S.A., Aigua Les Creus, S.A. and Font del Regás, S.A. plus Aguas de Mondáriz - Fuente del Val, S.A. as well since 1995. All these companies contribute the prestige of their natural and carbonated mineral waters in making the century-old company S.A. Vichy Catalán a leader in the bottled water sector.

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