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PARIS, Sept. 25, 2020 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/--

On the 24th of September, Laurent Fresnet, Maison Mumm Cellar Master,

orchestrated in Reims, France, a groundbreaking tasting experience featuring

some of its most emblematic cuvees. This innovative concept, melding

neuroscience and design, established a new way to taste and appreciate both the

aromatic complexities of Maison Mumm's champagnes and the multifaceted

qualities of Pinot Noir, which has been the House's signature grape since 1827.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click:

https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8781251-taste-encounters-with-mumm/

Maison Mumm: a constant quest for the Nec Plus Ultra

Maison Mumm's story, which stretches back nearly 200 years, features an ethos

of continual innovation in the making of champagne. This avant-garde vision is

rooted in an uncompromising relationship with quality, summarized by founder

Georges Hermann Mumm's motto: "Only the Best".

Maison Mumm's resolutely forward-looking spirit continues to explore new

methods with which to reveal the essence of Pinot Noir, whose powerful, rich

and elegant fruit endow the House's cuvees with structure, complexity and a

vibrant freshness.

Cellar Master Laurent Fresnet, the official custodian of Maison Mumm's 200-year

legacy of savoir-faire, takes advantage of this inherited wealth of expertise

to fully develop the flavors of Pinot Noir.

Laurent Fresnet perpetuates Maison Mumm's tradition of innovation

A native of Champagne, Laurent Fresnet has a profound personal attachment to

the Montagne de Reims, having grown up the Grand Cru village of Sillery, in a

wine growing family that has been making 100% Grand Cru champagnes for five

generations.

Fresnet, who joined Maison Mumm as its new Cellar Master in January 2020, was

particularly drawn to the wealth of its terroir. "Mumm boasts some of the most

exceptional vineyards in Champagne," he declares. "This terroir has everything

one could wish for in creating the most exquisite cuvees."

His commitment to innovation took hold during his studies, first at a renowned

research centre in Avize, and then later at the University of Reims, where he

majored in oenology, biology and biochemistry.

Laurent Fresnet's vision of champagne is of a wine that is both alive and

constantly evolving. With his insatiable energy and curiosity, he looks towards

the future with the same avant-garde spirit that has inspired Maison Mumm since

its very begninnings.

A creative encounter between cellar master, neuroscientist and designer

Laurent Fresnet has set a new challenge: to enrich the experience of tasting

Mumm wines by revealing the full spectrum of their aromas. He has conceived

this new approach by bringing together Gabriel Lepousez, a neuroscientist who

has devoted 15 years to the study of how wine is tasted and perceived, and the

designer Octave de Gaulle, who resolved the technical feat of Mumm's Grand

Cordon Stellar bottle—the first champagne that can be savored in space.

Fresnet began by describing each cuvee to Lepousez: its primary characteristics

and its subtler, sometimes overlooked nuances. The cellar master's ambition was

to allow for a finer, more discerning reading of each wine and its more

delicate aromas. Lepousez drew on his own research, applying neuroscience to

the appreciation of wine. In the course of a tasting, the brain receives a

multitude of signals triggered by the senses, the most important of which are

sight and touch. These signals have an impact on our sense of taste and as a

consequence, our appreciation of a wine.

When one or more traditional sensory cues are altered, our automatic habits are

challenged, leading to a more spontaneous tasting experience. More aromas and

flavors to come to the fore, opening up new perspectives that go beyond the

wine's intrinsic qualities.

Laurent Fresnet introduces newly conceived tools for experiencing Mumm

champagnes

Laurent Fresnet commissioned Octave de Gaulle to conceive and interpret sight

and touch-based cues that would put a spotlight on the different latent

qualities identified by Fresnet in each cuvee. Two glasses were formulated. One

glass features a smooth, glossy bowl tinted a deep saturated purple, with a

thick, weighted stem on a smooth, wide, polished stainless steel base, making

it significantly heavier in the hand than a traditional champagne glass.

The second glass is frosted on the outside, giving it an icy appearance and

grainy sensation on the lips. The fine stem has sharp edges, while the aluminum

base, somewhat narrower than on a classic Mumm champagne glass, has a slightly

roughened surface. The overall weight is much lighter than a standard champagne

glass.

The Mumm style as never explored before

Laurent Fresnet invited Gabriel Lepousez, before the tastings began, to take

guests through a simple olfactory experiment with the emblematic Mumm Grand

Cordon cuvee, which revealed dramatic variations in our individual responses to

smell. Research published in 2019 has revealed that these differences are

genetic. In addition to our genes, Lepousez explained, we are also powerfully

influenced by memory, emotional associations, and many other exterior factors

that give us highly individualized and personal responses.

Laurent Fresnet chose three cuvees that are particularly representative of the

House.

Tasted in the regular glass, Mumm Grand Cordon Rose has great freshness in the

attack, after which it reveals its fruity nature. When tasted in the heavier,

polished purple glass, however, it reveals an attractive depth and gourmet

notes of red fruit (morello and amarena cherries) and Viennese pastry.

The experiment was repeated with the Mumm Brut Millesime 2013. Laurent Fresnet

suggested tasting it first of all in the much lighter, frosted glass with it

texture surface, which reveals a hidden freshness with delicate, lucid aromas

that do not normally come to the fore with this cuvee. Tasted in the classic

Mumm glass however, this mature, structured and precise vintage cuvee offers

gourmet pastry notes.

With the RSRV Blanc de Noirs 2009, a standard glass released all the wonderful

qualities of a mature Pinot Noir from Verzenay: generosity, complexity and

aromas of ripe fruit. However, when tasted in the frosted glass, this wine

revealed great freshness with aromas of citrus and candied peach. Laurent

Fresnet points out that this striking freshness allows one to foresee the great

ageing potential of this exceptional wine.

"This innovative experiment helps reveal the wealth of nuances that are hidden

in Mumm's wines, as well as the remarkable, kaleidoscopic nature of our own,

marvelously human responses to champagne," concludes Laurent Fresnet.

#MummExplorers

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Bastyen Vandrille

Maison Mumm

bastyen.vandrille@pernod-ricard.com

Silene Fry

Maison Mumm

silene.fry@pernod-ricard.com

PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY

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SOURCE: Maison Mumm