The cellars of Maison Mumm were not always 25 km long. Those that are now among the largest in Champagne – and allow you to walk two blocks without seeing daylight – owe a lot to Guillaume de Bary. The former founder of GH Mumm & Cie (1840-1874) first rented a first space corresponding to the old cellars, before buying it back to expand it. Why this location in particular? Because the chalk there is easy to dig and allows for rapid expansion. It therefore met a need for expansion while satisfying quality requirements.
The “Champs Élysées”, one of the most emblematic galleries of these cellars, was also created at this time. Where there were cramped and poorly organized cellars, Guillaume de Bary innovated and created new ones in “fishbone” shapes. Their particularity? They are composed of a “spine” or a main gallery, from which side galleries branch off. The cellars then become rectilinear, which greatly facilitates the management of champagne; no more bottles are forgotten in a dark corner.
Alexandre, the son of Guillaume de Bary, succeeded him and had the buildings located above the cellars destroyed in order to rebuild them, but this time in line with the re-excavated cellars. Ingenious, he used the stones extracted from the cellars to build the floors of these new buildings. In a second phase, he adopted a new strategy and gradually bought up the cellars of certain nearby Houses. In 1914, these purchases made it possible to reach the current surface area of 25 km of cellars and raised the Maison Mumm to the coveted place of the top three Champagne Houses. These cellars allow the House to ship three million bottles per year worldwide today.
