Last year, The Write Taste featured Maison Mumm's new gastronomic project, La Table des Chefs. This 'immersive restaurant experience' sees young chefs from different backgrounds taking three-monthly turns in running the kitchen at GH Mumm's historic home in Reims. Having started with the incredible Chef Mallory Gabsi, every dish in each creatively designed menu can be perfectly matched to wines from Maison Mumm's impressive cellar.
GH Mumm Champagne Tasting with Giuseppe d'Aniello (l) and Sabrina Roussel (r)
This concept of food and Champagne matching was brought into focus once again, this time at The London Edition Hotel. The tasting was led by Giuseppe d'Aniello (wine director of the London Edition Hotel and brand ambassador for GH Mumm RSRV) and Sabrina Roussel (oenologist at GH Mumm).
Two of GH Mumm's RSRV cuvées, along with the new Millésimé 2016 took centre stage, paired with a selection of canapés to illustrate the versatility of these Champagnes.
GH Mumm has been producing Champagne since 1838, their motto from the start being 'Only the best'. The cellar master at the time would mark the best cuvées with the acronym RSRV, meaning 'reserved', as these bottles were only given to family members and special friends of the Maison.
Today, the small production RSRV brand is reserved for specific restaurants, venues and select retailers. "What we want to do is create a different brand focussed on terroir and quality", says d'Aniello. As a result, each bottle in the RSRV range is made from a blend of grapes from GH Mumm's 160 hectares of Grand Cru vineyards, out of the 218 hectares they own.
This cuvée spends at least four years on the lees and the grapes come from five different crus, hence the name.
🍇 Blend: 60% Pinot Noir from Verzenay (for fresh, fruity character), Aÿ and Bouzy (for power and structure); and 40% Chardonnay from Cramant (for tangy citrus character) and Avize (for linearity, minerality, elegance).
🍬 Dosage: 6g/L.
🍞 Lees ageing: 4+ years, but here, the base vintage is 2014 with 30% reserve wines, so this cuvée has seen 8 years lees ageing.
👁️ Appearance: Bright pale gold.
👃 Nose: Notes of stone fruit with a touch of buttered toast and dried fruit.
😋 Palate: Fresh and fruity showing a good balance of citrus character with juicy notes of peach and apricot, sweet biscuit, a touch of minerality plus an earthy edge that carries on to the long finish.
🍽️ Food pairings: This wine shows some complexity, but at the same time is very easy to drink. While perfect on its own or with appetisers like the canapés served at this tasting (see above), it's extremely versatile in terms of potential food pairings. For example, try with a traditional Christmas turkey dinner, oysters, fish in cream sauce or mushroom-based dishes.
💳 Price: Available from The Whisky Exchange, £44.95
This cuvée takes its name from Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, a Japanese-French painter who was a close friend of Maison Mumm in the 1950s. Foujita drew the rose motif which has decorated bottles of Mumm Champagne Rosé since 1958.
It is also the only Champagne of the RSRV selection where oak is used for the liqueur d'expédition.
🍇 Blend: 70% Pinot Noir from Verzenay, Aÿ and Bouzy; and 30% Chardonnay from Cramant and Avize. Within this blend, 12.5% of still Pinot Noir from Ambonnay was added for colour, structure and richness plus red and black fruit aromas.
🍬 Dosage: 6g/L.
🍞 Lees ageing: 3 years.
👁️ Appearance: Deep salmon pink.
👃 Nose: Earthy aromas of mushroom and truffle mingle with tangy raspberries, ripe red plum and cherry notes plus a touch of vanilla brioche in the background.
😋 Palate: Complex and rounded with rich fruit structure showing red and black berries, blood orange and grapefruit. A touch of umami lends an earthy, mushroom character, while tannins are subtle, acidity is fresh and there's a light edge of vanilla pastry.
🍽️ Food pairings: Despite its modest alcohol content of 12% ABV, this is a big, complex, gastronomic rosé that goes perfectly with duck, richly-flavoured salmon dishes, grilled meat or earthy mushrooms, as well as with red berry-based desserts.
💳 Price: Available from The Whisky Exchange, £69.75.
Mumm does not make a vintage Champagne every year. In 2016, a cold winter and spring were followed by a very hot summer with sunburn destroying around 33% of grapes, according to Roussel. However, the grapes that survived provided enough freshness, acidity, structure and complexity to warrant a vintage cuvée that is part of the celebrated Cordon Rouge range.
🍇 Blend: 75% Pinot Noir from Verzy, Ambonnay and Verzenay; and 25% Chardonnay from Oger and Avize.
🍬 Dosage: 6g/L.
🍞 Lees ageing: 6 years.
👁️ Appearance: Pale gold.
👃 Nose: Gentle and fresh citrus-led aromas.
😋 Palate: A medium-to-full bodied, elegant expression with good structure and freshness. A fruity and smooth core of lime cream with a light earthy edge is lifted by subtle notes of poached pear and grilled peach plus a mineral, saline touch on the finish.
🍽️ Food pairings: This refined Champagne paired particularly well with the caramelised mushroom tartlet and octopus canapés, but could also work with Comté cheese, or other meat and fish dishes.
💳 Price: Available from Vinatis, £45.90.
All these wines underwent malolactic conversion, but Roussel confirms that at Mumm, they are experimenting with non-malolactic expressions of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from particular Grand Crus. So far, they have not made a cuvée from 100% non-malolactic blends. However, with climate change raising temperatures and affecting acidity levels in the grapes, this is an important counter-measure for the Champenois to retain freshness in the wines.
"We decided this year", she says, "to make a few tanks without malo for testing with cellar master, Yann Munier. We really want to try these tanks and cuvées in a few months' time."
While this is one method of retaining acidity levels, other measures are also necessary for the long term. "I think we have hard work in the vineyard to keep the acidity", she adds. "The first way is the vineyard. After that, we will see. Maybe we will make something different in the winery. No malolactic is an opportunity."
So, with the festive season 🎉 soon upon us, it's tempting to reserve bottles of bubbly for celebrations and toasts. Yet, sparkling wine, just like still wine, has enough variety to match every course of a meal as well. These three Mumm Champagnes and particularly the RSRV Foujita show how quality gastronomic styles offer huge versatility with many types of food and are priced very reasonably.
🥂 So this year, make it a Mumm moment and bring on the bubbly with your Christmas turkey or whatever else you'll be eating as 2024 comes to an end … or sit back, turn on the TV and just enjoy a deliciously decadent taste of French flair and Champagne chic as the new year comes in. Cheers!
