G.H Mumm has released three new vintage champagnes from noteworthy vintages; RSRV Lalou 2013, RSRV Blanc de Noirs 2018 and Mumm Millésimé 2016. Sara Underdown has her first taste in Sydney.
I’ve long thought that Mumm has some of the best value for money vintage champagnes offered by a major House. Moreover, they are incredibly long-aging. Years ago I had my ‘ah ha’ Mumm moment over a magnum from 1961. It was a late disgorged beauty, scintillatingly fresh, and nuanced with white tobacco and candied peel.
It was a moment of reckoning because I realised that entry level champagnes, whilst often touted as the flagship of a producer, don’t always do justice to the wider range. Vintage champagnes can be a big step-up for champagne makers. Often made in the best years, they draw upon premium estate owned fruit or at least contracts with long-standing growers in coveted grand and premier cru locations. Fruit is also handled with more care and vinified in smaller and separated batches. Then there’s the additional time on lees. Mumm’s vintages reflect all of this due diligence and pays respect to their historically significant pinot noir vineyards (primarily in Verzenay) to produce its vibrant and fresh style…these champagnes are made to age.
Ever since, I’ve invested in a case or two with every release and why wouldn’t I when the retail price is no more than AUD$130 and sometimes as low as AUD$100. At these prices, they sit ever so marginally above many non-vintage champagnes, they’re a bargain.
Earlier this month the Maison released Mumm Millésimé 2016, RSRV Blanc de Noirs 2018 and RSRV Lalou 2013. Though all ended up being good years in Champagne, 2016 got off to a tricky start however the late burst in sunshine resulted in high quality pinot noir with considerable richness.
In the Millésimé, this is obvious. Pinot contributes to around 80% to the blend with the balance made-up by chardonnay. Five years of aging combined with the richness of the year has produced a champagne with a slightly more developed palate, than I recall in previous releases, though in-keeping with Mumm’s stylistic aspirations. There’s a creamy texture, a little cooked fruit character and marzipan, still with good salinity and tension owing to the electric character of northerly pinot noir.
Once known as ‘Mumm de Verzenay’, the Maison’s RSRV Blanc de Noirs is a champagne institution that attracts the admiration of many Champenoise and champagne lovers alike. The fruit comes exclusively from the Maison’s estate-owned vineyards in Verzenay, that have been long-held by the House and key to their DNA. The typicity of this area rests on a highly strung sense of pinot noir that manifests in exacting precision, finesse and electric tension. It makes RSRV a powerful and vibrant wine that represents the identity of the terroir and Maison Mumm in their purest forms.
The 2018 vintage was a warm year and it shows in the glass which is notably deeper gold in colour. After six years of aging, the nose is redolent with grilled hazelnut, nougat and umami deliciousness that is concurred on the palate. I find with the RSRV Blanc de Noirs there is always a firmness to the acidity and strictness to the structure, the hallmark of pinot noir from Verzenay, making them worthy of additional time in the cellar before drinking.
Lastly, RSRV Lalou 2013, an iconic flagship champagne for the House, honours the Maison’s most influential figurehead. It was in 1920 that René Lalou joined Mumm’s Board of Directors, becoming the visionary who would guide the Maison for nearly 50 years. Lalou was a fan of promoting quality through a focus on terroir, which led him to ultimately acquire more grand cru vineyards.
Mumm later released a cuvée, René Lalou, in his honour from the 1966 vintage. Only nine vintages were produced between 1966 and 1985. Then in 2007, the idea was revived with the release of Cuvée R. Lalou 1998.
The champagne’s name changed again to join the RSRV range, which is short for ‘reserved’, that is, reserved for friends of the House. Whilst once upon a time RSRV was available only to a select few on the Pernod Ricard database, it's now more accessible, albeit through restaurant wine lists. The range is essentially the prestige offer from Mumm.
Fruit is typically taken from the same grand crus (Bouzy, Ambonnay, Verzy, Verzenay, Cramant, Avize and Ay) and roughly 50% pinot noir and 50% chardonnay. The wines are deliberately structured to be bigger and more powerful.
2013 was a great year in Champagne, though it doesn’t look so good on paper. The spring was cool with delayed flowering, hail fell in summer, uneven ripeness was everywhere, and harvest was one of the latest in 20 years. What resulted, however, is greater than the sum of its parts; a more ‘classic’ vintage, by Champagne’s standards.
The RSRV Lalou 2013 shows the refinement of the year. It plays straight with a pronounced saline and zesty nose. The palate is wonderfully fresh and chalky with a soft and delicate texture and some pastry flavours. We tasted this alongside its 2008 counterpart, also from a classically structured year. This too was gloriously flinty and chalky, still with terrific acidity, length and line. The House tries to balance the powerful fruit character with a special liqueur aged in new oak to build in sweet and softening vanilla flavours.
G.H. Mumm’s three new vintage champagnes are available now across Australia with the following recommended retail prices.
RSRV Lalou 2013 ($399.99)
RSRV Blanc de Noirs 2018 ($199.99)
Mumm Millésimé 2016 ($129.99)
