Maison Mumm

With their total area under vines rated at an impressive 98% on the champagne quality scale, Maison Mumm’s vineyards include 160 hectares classified as Grands Crus, and are situated in eight historic villages whose grapes express all of the authenticity of the Champagne region’s best terroirs: Aÿ, Bouzy, Ambonnay, Verzy, Verzenay, Mailly, Avize and Cramant.

Very early in its history, Maison Mumm realised the importance of establishing a system to ensure the highest quality, supervising every stage in production, from grape-growing practices in all its vineyards to the crucial pressing process.

The House demonstrated its capacity for innovation as well as its strong commitment to terroir – one that has never wavered through the centuries – by setting up its wine presses directly in the vineyards, an innovation symbolising its commitment to quality that continues to this day. Thus in 1840, when the company acquired its first parcels situated in Verzenay, a wine press was built and installed at the same time, which is still in use today.

Maison Mumm also introduced a supply policy that was unprecedented at the time: purchasing grapes directly from growers in the finest vineyards rather than unfermented juice. This approach allowed the company to verify grape quality and to press the juice itself. In this way, genuine partnerships were forged with growers, from whom the House demanded “only best”.

The von Mumms are one of Germany’s most ancient noble families, tracing their ancestry back to the medieval era. It was in the 18th century that their history first became linked to winemaking. In 1761, Peter Arnold Mumm decided to establish a business in Cologne as a wine producer and merchant. He transmitted his passion to his sons Jacobus, Gottlieb and Philipp, who, in turn, became pioneers in the emerging French champagne industry. Crossing the border, they set up operations in Reims, officially creating their champagne House in 1827.

In 1852, Georges Hermann Mumm, a son of one of the founders, took the reins of the company, which would henceforth be known as G.H.MUMM et Cie. In establishing the Mumm vineyards, he laid the foundations for a company strategy emphasising excellence. Open-minded and a defender of social progress, he instituted a system of prix de vertu and primes d’infortune, designed to provide economic assistance to workers disadvantaged due to age or disability.

Inspired by the initial adventure of the company’s founding fathers, Georges Hermann Mumm tirelessly travelled the globe, across Europe and as far away as Australia and New Zealand to market his champagnes. Already at the turn of the twentieth century, the company counted some twenty subsidiaries in the world’s main markets, including the United States, Russia and Canada, but also Brazil and Peru. Georges Hermann Mumm’s greatest creation was certainly the famous “Cordon Rouge”, first released in 1875.

Today, it remains the symbol of quality for the Maison MUMM. The Mumm family is also recognised for its receptiveness to new ideas as well as its appetite for challenges and includes a number of celebrated figures among its members, not only those in the winemaking field. For instance, the aviator Walther von Mumm, who took part in the first tests of two monoplanes alongside Louis Blériot. Walther von Mumm was also a champion bobsledder whose four-man team competed in the 1932 Winter Olympic Games.

Illustrious royal families across Europe, including those of Austria-Hungary, Belgium, the Netherlands, Prussia, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, were captivated by the Maison MUMM style.

Named as an official supplier of champagne to British royalty in 1904, MUMM first gained pride of place at the Derby Day banquet served in Buckingham Palace that year. Commemorating this honour, the House prepared a special label, with the phrase “G.H.MUMM et Co., Champagne des Souverains” and displaying the coats of arms of its most eminent clients.

To this day, Maison MUMM remains an official supplier of champagne to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, as evidenced by the Royal Warrant decorating the neck of its bottles.

In 1900, when Cordon Rouge was introduced to the English market, the slogan used was “the most expensive, therefore the best”. The Maison MUMM has always sold its champagnes at relatively high prices. When Maison MUMM was founded in 1827, there were champagnes available on the French market for 2.75 francs wholesale, whereas the new company sold its product for 3.50 francs.

This is the price paid for higher quality. Resolutely orientated to the export market, the House saw its sales rise from half a million bottles in 1879 to three million in 1913, which made it the leading champagne house at the time.

It was in 1920 that René Lalou became a member of Mumm’s Board of Directors. For this visionary, terroir and quality were seen as central to the company’s ongoing development. Launching a full-scale reorganisation of the company’s vineyards, he lovingly re-established mythical parcels and acquired additional Grand Cru vineyards. At the helm of G.H.Mumm for nearly fifty years, he was the key driving force behind the company’s development in the 20th century. It is impossible to speak of René Lalou without talking about art. An enlightened aesthete and patron, he personally linked G.H.Mumm’s history to that of 20th-century painting. Prominent artists would lend their talents to lasting creations for the brand, including the painters Utrillo and Foujita.

His philosophy can be summed up in the famous motto of Georges Hermann Mumm, which he blazoned on all of the company’s contracts: “Only the best.”

Cuvée Réné Lalou was created in honour of this great man’s exceptional legacy. There were only nine vintages of this treasured champagne, produced between 1966 and 1985. So prized are these bottles that they regularly reach steep prices at wine collectors’ auctions, although a small number of the world’s finest restaurants still offer Cuvée René Lalou on their menus.

In 2007, the Cellar Master decided to bring this mythical champagne back to life, thus offering his own tribute to this important figure, with Cuvée R. Lalou 1998. Exceptional in every way, this cuvée was produced from the same grape varieties, grown on the same parcels, as those of its celebrated ancestor. It was followed by a 1999 vintage. The legend continues…