No survey of Napa sparkling wine makers is complete without a visit to Mumm Napa. After a successful tour of Domaine Carneros and Domaine Chandon, our tour finished strong with a visit to Mumm Napa. As usual, the fun was overflowing!
We have visited Mumm Napa a number of times before, and enjoyed every minute. We returned for the incredible view of the setting sun and the amazing sparkling wines. We also returned for the great vibe that seems to be soaked into every fiber of the tasting room. Although we didn’t know anyone when we entered the tasting room, in a short time we were fast friends with people from thousands of mile away.
We were thrilled to be seated at a table with a great view of the western ridge line, the better to enjoy the sunset. We met wine guide Ricardo, who solicited our tasting flight choices and quickly procured the required set of sparkling wines. He learned that we were repeat visitors, so he skipped the “basics of Mumm” speech and gave us an advance course in Mumm history. He was clearly excited to be associated with the winery!
Mumm tastings are presented all at once, with champagne flutes placed on labeled coasters to keep everything straight. That means that comparing and contrasting is easy, as is sharing tastes between all of us. A very organized and civilized approach! That allowed us to “divide and conquer” the various tasting flight options and not miss a thing.
We really enjoyed the tastings, especially the sparkling wines toward the dry end of the spectrum. We especially liked the sparkling rosé, and put a number of bottles on our take home list. Some of the offerings are hard to find outside of the winery, and we didn’t let the opportunity go to waste!
As we were in the middle of the tasting flights, we had a chance to interact with the adjacent table. This type of interaction is quite commonplace at Mumm, something about the friendly staff and convivial vibe of the tasting room. The next table was hosting a group visiting from New York city, selecting Mumm as their introduction to Napa sparkling wines. Within minutes were were all fast friends, exchanging tourism tips on our respective home grounds. Given our upcoming visit to New York, their advice was invaluable. Hopefully our recommendations on additional wine tasting choices were equally useful.
As our tastings completed and our tip sharing reached a bit of a lull, we realized that we needed to leave in order to make our dinner reservations. We purchased our sparkling, said goodbye to Ricardo and the New York group and set off toward dinner. Next stop: the Goose and Gander restaurant!
About the Author: John grills a mean steak and is always in the market for another wine fridge. Believes that if a winery has more than 10 employees, it's probably too big. Buys wine faster than he drinks it, but who cares?
