🍾 Mumm Cordon Rouge

Mumm Cordon Rouge is a non-vintage white Champagne in the Brut style from the house Mumm in Reims (Marne).

According to the house, the cuvée dates from 1876, when Georges Hermann Mumm adorned his Brut with a red ribbon in homage to the Légion d’honneur; in 1881 the ribbon was replaced by a label with the red sash. The blend draws on at least 100 crus: Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims and Aube, Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs, Sézannais, Vitryat and Aube, and Meunier from the Marne and Ardre valleys; it ages at least 20 months in the cellars.

The house Mumm was founded in 1827 in Reims by the Mumm brothers. According to the house, Pinot Noir is its signature grape, and the first records of a Mumm vintage Champagne date from 1842.

The boundaries of the Champagne area were set by a law of 6 May 1919: parts of the Marne, Aube, Aisne, Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne departments. The designation’s specification allows seven grape varieties, dominated by Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier; grapes are picked as whole bunches, that is by hand, and the yield is limited to 10,400 kg per hectare.

According to the Comité Champagne, Champagne is served chilled to 8–10 °C, and bottles are kept in the dark at a steady 10–15 °C, without vibration. An opened bottle is best closed with a sparkling-wine stopper and kept cold.

It is sold under the protected designation of origin Champagne: the bubbles come only from a second fermentation in the bottle, and the wine is aged for at least 15 months before sale (36 for vintage). Brut on the label is an EU sugar term: less than 12 g of sugar per litre.

Why it matters to you. According to the house, it comes in: a 0.75 l bottle, a 1.5 l magnum, a 3 l jeroboam, a 6 l methuselah and a 9 l salmanazar. No year on the label means it is not a vintage wine: the house may blend wines from different harvests. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.