Score: 90/100
House Mumm unveiled for the first time in October 2016, in Asia during Hong Kong’s first FIA Formula E championship, its then-new bottle design for its flagship Grand Cordon non-vintage cuvée.
Breaking with convention, the bottle has no front label but instead a genuine red ribbon actually indented in the shape of the glass wine bottle, as a reinterpretation of the brand’s famous red cord.
The G.H. Mumm signature and eagle emblems are printed in gold directly on the glass too.
The blend of Cuvée Mumm Grand Cordon is slightly dominated by Pinot Noir, from grapes sourced from some top crus of Champagne, and selected for their structure and power. It’s complemented with the crisp finesse of Chardonnay, and the fruity roundness of Pinot Meunier.
But How Good Really Is Mumm Grand Cordon Champagne?
Watch the Wine Review in Video, or read my complete tasting notes below.
See Mumm Grand Cordon in Video
Tasting Notes
This Champagne comes in a bright and quite shiny a lemon-yellow color. Slightly pale, but vibrant-enough a color.
The nose throws notes of intense honey, with delicate brioche aromas, green apple and freshly squeezed lemon, with a hint of caramel and walnut.
A subtle and elegant combination of lively primary fruit, gorgeous citrus with tropical mango and pineapple, and some discrete leesy tones. Pleasing but subtle and relatively introvert to smell at. Finesse comes to mind to describe the aromatic profile…
The wine, on the palate, strikes first by its smoothness and unctuosity.
Bubbles are fine and give the Champagne a creamy texture, while a crisp acidity brings the pungent lime and lemon flavors to a zesty life.
Plenty of hazelnut, of the fresh hazelnut type just slightly roasted and caramelized perhaps, populate the mid-palate together, with many layers of stonefruit like apricot, some apple and pear, but also delicate sweet spices.
It tastes somewhat like a fruit crumble where the fruit would have stayed vibrant enough to taste lively, fresh and acidic, yet cooked enough to take on some rich buttery and toasted notes of caramel, and having absorbed some cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and other sweet spices.
The finish is a little phenolic, with some drying tannins combined with a salty feel that makes you salivate, and give a sense of savoriness to the finish to a wine that otherwise feels sweet/sour on a pungently fruity character.
Overall
A very pleasant non-vintage cuvée, filled with gorgeous fruity goodness, a vibrant and crisp acidity mellowed by salivating notes of toasted hazelnut and caramel, honey, butter, and a touch of sweetness.
The outstanding featured here is the myriad of different fruit aromas to be smelt and tasted, from green and red apple, to passion fruit and pineapple, through pear, apricot, peach, all sorts of citrus, litchi and many more.
Really, if you taste and smell carefully enough, you could virtually sense every fruit in there, probably even some acidic red wood berries from the Pinots in the blend. The magic comes from the fact that they are all tied together by subtle infused leesy and sweet/spicy notes, providing some depth..
The whole is very well-balanced, quite complex and more importantly very smooth, although ending with a salivating phenolic and acidic grip.
Enjoy ?
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