Mumm sparkling wines reminded us of what Napa is all about
Spending the day in the Napa Valley means one thing: wine tasting. And long gone are the days where you’d carelessly go from winery to winery, choosing them at a whim, without having to worry about reservations and tasting fees. Wine tasting in Napa now requires both organization and money; lots and lots of money.
I decided to go to Mumm after our lunch stop at Guidi’s Deli because I knew I’d be wanting some sparkling wine – in my old age, I’m looking for fun wherever I can get it.
I didn’t realize until we arrived for our 12:30 PM reservation that we had actually been there back in 2016, when relatives from Argentina came to visit. We had sat in the patio back then, but it’d been a lovely spring day. On what I knew would be a hot summer one, I figured seating inside would be a better choice – even with COVID being at epidemic levels once again.
It turned out that I was right, not only was it more pleasant inside in terms of temperature, but we had a lovely view of the vineyards. As no one was sitting anywhere near us, and the room was large and airy, we felt pretty safe.
Our experience at Mumm started with a complementary glass of sparkling wine, offered to everyone. That day, it was the Mumm Napa Brut Reserve ($50), an all around crowd pleaser. It’s 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, some of the wine is aged in oak barrels for a years before being blended and allowed to ferment in the bottle for another four years.
It’s a very well balanced sparkling wine, quite effervescent, and not too much bitterness or acidity. It’s a brut, but it had hints of sweetness. It’s just very easy to drink and what I’d call a happy wine. And it is a mature wine, it reminded us of what Napa is all about – and that expensive wines are expensive for a reason. I totally understand why Mumm features it as their all-around wine.
Mumm offers three different tastings, each of three different sparkling wines, costing $40 to $48 per person. In addition, the server chooses a fourth wine after they get to know your preferences. You can also order cheese plates to nibble on, but as we had just come back from lunch we didn’t bother with that.
We chose to share the “club spotlight” tasting ($45). These are wines only available at the winery and for the wine club.
They served us the first two wines together with the recommendation that we drink them cold – and I, perhaps for the first time, realized the importance of an ice bucket. Even though it wasn’t particularly hot inside, the wine did get warm pretty quickly and all the wines lost their magic once they were tepid.
Our first wine flight taste was the 2018 Blanc de Blancs Reserve Extra Brut ($60) from Napa Valley. This was aged for five years in the bottle. I wasn’t as fond of it. Being an extra brut, it was more bitter than the preceding one. It also had smaller bubbles, which is neither here or there. My husband didn’t taste the bitterness but actually found it frutier and easy to drink. He liked it more than I, but we both agreed it was a very well balanced, non-acidic, adult tasting sparkling wine.
Our second wine, the Devaux Ranch Reserve Rosé ($55), wasn’t too different from the previous one. It was mostly pinot noir with a tiny bit of chardonnay, and made into a rosé (for which, if I remember correctly, they use the peels). This was aged 45 months in the bottle. I felt this wine had a bitter core, but circled by fruity flavors. I’m not the sort of person who can ever tell which fruit a wine is supposed to taste like – but then again, at a recent dinner my friends and I thought a blood orange sorbet was actually guava flavored. Mike once again didn’t taste the bitterness and instead found it very easy to drink, very smooth and just “yummy”. He did feel it had a shorter finish than the previous wines, however.
The third wine in the Club Spotlight was the Brut Reserve Extended Tirage ($60). This 60/40 combo of pinot noir and chardonnay was aged in the bottle for 7 years. It led to extremely small and effervescent bubbles, which just tickled your mouth as you drunk it. It was tasty, not too bitter but just so much fun.
Finally, our server chose for us the Eclipse Blanc de Noirs ($55). It was very similar to the one before, well balanced and extremely effervescent, with those fun little bubbles, but it had a great story behind it. It is made from the grapes harvested on August 21st, 2017, the day of the total solar eclipse we experienced in the West Coast – though it wasn’t a total eclipse here in California.
This was, indeed, the perfect wine for us. Mike and I took our girls to Oregon to see the total eclipse, and as we looked for good locations for it, we found ourselves in a beautiful stream in the forest, with only one other person there. We watched it sitting on the rocks, experienced the full sound effects of the birds going quiet, the temperature going chilly and then the magic of the eclipse itself. Earlier this year, we went to Dallas to see another total eclipse – but the 2017 one was the most special that I will always remember. Needless to say, we bought a bottle of this champagne for a special occasion.
As it was Mike’s birthday, the server very nicely brought him a little box of truffles to celebrate. Of course, we shared them. These included a salted caramel truffle and a brut rosé raspberry truffle. They are made by Anette’s Chocolates in the city of Napa, because we all know that colabs are the order of the day.
I loved the salted caramel truffle, which was rich, not overly sweet and just delicious. I didn’t like the other truffle too much, it was just too bitter and intense for my taste – Mike, of course, much preferred it. I think our tastes in chocolate reflect our tastes in romantic partners as well.
And that was our tasting experience at Mumm. Our server was very efficient, a good story teller, a pleasant conversationalist, and gave us a great experience. So much so that I was actually thinking we should join the club to repeat this. We probably won’t, it’s too much money, but it’s the first time I’d ever been tempted to actually join a club.
Mumm Napa
8445 Silverado Trail
Rutherford, CA
(800) 686-6272
Daily 10 AM - 4:30 PM
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