There’s an old joke among European travellers that buying a glass of wine is often cheaper than a bottle of water. At a chic hotel in Northern Ireland, that joke is a reality – and Canada is to blame.

The Merchant Hotel in Belfast has introduced a lavish lineup of 13 bottled waters from around the globe, and two Canadian distillations made the pricey list.

A 750-millilitre bottle of Iceberg water from the Canadian Arctic sells for a cool £26.45, or $53 CAD – the most expensive of the bunch – while a Quebec vintage harvested from maple trees is priced at £15.50, or $31.50 CAD, according to recent exchange rates.

The exclusive Water Menu was unveiled in a tasting last week, which included “water butlers” pouring out luxury H2O for select sippers. Other selections hail from England, Italy and Fiji.

And while it may sound ridiculous, hotel management insists the move isn’t a gimmick and that plenty of travellers are willing to take the plunge.

“There is a demand in five-star hotels of different types of waters,” the hotel’s food and beverage manager, Marco Marro, told CTV’s Canada AM Thursday morning. “Some of our guests, especially from the United States, are demanding the Iceberg water from Canada.”

The Iceberg water, which Marro described as “one of the purest waters on Earth,” is supposedly chipped away from the wall of an Arctic glacier before being purified and bottled.

“Perhaps that’s what makes the difference. It has a beautiful, clean taste. It’s very smooth,” Marro said.

The luxe water menu shouldn’t come as a surprise; the Merchant Hotel already has bragging rights to one of the world’s most expensive cocktail, a $1,300 Mai Tai made from an ultra-rare Jamaican rum used in the very first Mai Tai recipe.

But for those with shallower pockets, you can still order a glass of Belfast tap water, free of charge.