Mumm

History

1. 1827

   Brothers from the Rhineland

   The Mumm family had traded wine in Cologne since 1761, when Peter Arnold Mumm founded the firm P.A. Mumm and owned vineyards on the Rhine. His three sons, Gottlieb, Jacobus and Philipp, saw the potential of sparkling wines from Champagne and on 1 March 1827, with a local partner, G. Heuser, opened a branch in Reims.

2. 1852

   Georges Hermann and the motto

   After family disputes the firm splits in two; one part is taken over by Georges Hermann Mumm and from then on trades as G.H. Mumm & Cie. His motto “Nec plus ultra”, meaning “only the best”, stays with the house for good. Mumm buys grapes rather than ready-made must and sets up presses right in the vineyards; the first, from 1840 in Verzenay, still works today.

3. 1876

   The red ribbon

   Georges Hermann ties a red silk ribbon around the bottle, inspired by the Legion of Honour. From 1881 the ribbon is woven into the label. At the turn of the century Mumm has around 20 agencies around the world, from the USA and Russia to Brazil and Peru, and from 1886 it supplies Champagne to the British court.

4. 1914

   Enemy property

   The Mumms lived in Champagne for almost a hundred years but never took French citizenship. During the First World War the French state confiscated their property, and the family returned to Germany. In 1920 the firm was re-established in Reims as a French company. During the German occupation the Mumm family briefly took over management, which was reversed immediately after the liberation.

5. 1966

   Foujita's chapel

   René Lalou, head of the house, was godfather to the Japanese painter Léonard Foujita, who converted to Catholicism in Reims in 1959. Lalou bought, with his own money, a plot next to the Cordon Rouge house, and Foujita designed and painted the Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix chapel there. The chapel was consecrated on 1 October 1966; the artist and his wife are buried in it.

6. 2000

   New owners

   After years in the hands of Seagram, the Hicks Muse fund and Allied Domecq, Mumm passed to Pernod Ricard in 2005.

7. 2025

   To space and back

   After years of work with the French space agency CNES, Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar flies from Florida on 25 June 2025 on the Axiom Ax-4 mission and returns to Earth on 15 July intact. The same year Pernod Ricard considers selling the brand, but in December announces that Mumm is staying and sells only Mumm Napa. For the 150th anniversary of Cordon Rouge in 2026 the house refreshed the label.

People

Curiosities

1. Cordon Rouge sailed with Commander Jean-Baptiste Charcot on his polar expedition in 1904. source
2. Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar is the first Champagne designed to be drunk in weightlessness. Work began in 2017 with ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy; the bottle flew on a mission commanded by Peggy Whitson. source
3. In 1837 Mumm received its first royal warrant from Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, King of Sweden and Norway. From 1886 it supplied the British court, from Queen Victoria to Elizabeth II. source
4. The façade of the former Jules Mumm dispatch building on rue de Mars is decorated with mosaics from 1898 showing the five stages of making Champagne, from harvest to corking. source
5. The windmill at Verzenay on the Montagne de Reims, with one of the finest views over the vineyards, is part of the Mumm heritage. source
6. rumour According to Reuters, in 2025 Pernod Ricard hired Rothschild & Co to explore a sale of Mumm and expected at least 600 million euros. The deal did not happen: in December 2025 the group sold only Mumm Napa. source
7. Laurent Fresnet died in April 2023. Mumm searched for a successor for a year and only announced Yann Munier's name in January 2024. source