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Today’s wine is an sparkling sensation of a bubbly wine, delivering a greater richness and deeper experience than your everyday bubbler

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Mission Codename: Mumms the word

Operative: Agent Sparkle, Wine Spies resident Sparkling wine expert

Objective: With the holidays behind us, and Valentine’s Day rapidly approaching, locate a stellar sparkler for our Operatives

Mission Status: Accomplished!

Current Winery: Mumm Napa

Wine Subject: Napa Reserve Brut Extended Tirage

Winemaker: Ludovic Dervin

Backgrounder: Ever the romantic, Agent Sparkle went out in search of a sparkling wine for our Operatives’ most romantic exploits. Today Agent Sparkle returns with a delicious stash of Mumm Napa’s Extended Triage Reserve Brut, a sparkling wine that delivers an added measure of richness and excitement over Mumm’s already wonderful sparklers. Read her detailed tasting notes and romantic mission report below

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – An incredible golden color, with just a hint of bronze. This beautiful sparkler glitters and glistens, with golden edges and clusters of tiny bubbles that cascade continuously up the glass

Smell – Crisp and fresh with aromatics of melon, citrus, fresh baked bread, honey and soft vanilla

Feel – This bubbly starts off with a steep blast of tiny bubbles at the front of the tongue, then the bubbles cascade and expand, leading to a full, crisp and rich feel

Taste – Delightfully delicious and broad flavors of fresh bread, and fruit of mild citrus, pear, pale fig, green apple and creamy honey

Finish – A bold start leads to flavors that linger, leaving behind sweetness, yeasty bread dough and fresh white fruits that taper slowly

Conclusion – Mumm Napa continues to produce some of my favorite sparkling wines, and today’s Mumm bubbler is a richly refined winner! With greater depth and greater flavor than their excellent regular Brut Prestige, this wine offers a more refined and more elegant experience. I am oh, so picky about the bubbly wines that I choose for you, and I recommend this sparkler for your next romantic rendezvous!

Mission Report:

Agent Sparkle here with a brief report. Sorry to make this so short, but, I am off for the rarest of occurrences in the life of a Wine Spy: time off!

Yes, H.Q. is rewarding me with some well-earned R&R and I plan to take full advantage. Suitcase packed and wine carrier stuffed full of Mumm Napa’s rich and delicious Extented Tirage, I am off for a romantic rendezvous in the Caribbean.

This sparkling masterpiece from Mumm is the perfect accompaniment and I recommend it for you next romantic encounter. Remember, Operative, Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. If you order this wine today, it will arrive in time for you and your sweetheart to enjoy on V-Day.

If you forget about how we first came to infiltrate the Mumm winery, I have included the following mission recap for your reading pleasure:

It was a high level meeting of all of our overseas operatives. HQ wanted to have a rare face-to-face. We needed to get on the same page and refocus our efforts. I, Agent Sparkle, was tasked with arranging the summit.

Choosing the location was easy; I just had to get us all to the Monterey safe-house. Agents from around the world arrived. It was good to see Agent Baco Noir in the flesh, in her signature Italian pumps. Agent J played pilot to Agent Terroir and Agent White, flying them both in in her Citation X. They had come all the way from France for the meeting (stay tuned for the results of that ongoing mission). Agent Red arrived a little late but, as a founder of The Wine Spies, he can get away with it.

Agent Grenache, the heavy-lifter of the group, fresh cleaning up our latest logistical nightmare, was in attendance. So, too, were Agent Neutron and Agent Orange (our hipster Paso Robles Operatives), Agent Noir (Monterey), and Agent Smith (you read about him in Agent Red’s mission report of yesterday). Also in attendance were a select group our Agent’s field assets, moles, and confidential informants.

The meeting room was packed. So was the agenda: There were extended tastings to conduct, technical analysis, sessions on trade-craft, research on trends and perhaps most importantly, the latest harvest reports.

It was a long and grueling day and thankfully Agent Red arranged a great after-conference BBQ, Aussie style, in my honor. He arranged the dinner, but I had arranged the refreshment of the evening, a beautiful sparkling wine from my newest friends, Mumm Napa.

Mumm Napa’s Reserve Brut became an instant favorite from the moment I first placed the winery under surveillance. It took some skillful subterfuge to procure enough to serve at our gathering – and to keep enough for our well-deserving Operatives for today’s offering. We’re sorry that you weren’t able to attend our conference, but I am sure that today’s superb bubbly is consolation enough.

The day behind us, the BBQ was in full swing. We were having a great time, and I just love the fall along the California coast. It was the perfect way to finish the days activities, watching the sun set into the mighty Pacific – with a glass of Champagne in hand.

Agent Terroir raised his glass and said, “A mes amis et à un grand avenir!, A votre sante!”. He took a sip and smiled at Agent Sparkle with a glowing look of approval. Sparkle just smiled back and whispered to Red, “Mumm’s the word.”

Wine Spies Vineyard Check:

The gorgeous Rutherford, California location of the Mumm Napa winery and vineyards can be seen in this satellite photo.