Easy Mulled Wine Recipe
Also known as spiced wine, mulled wine is a drink made from wine and mulling spices that’s served warm. A glass of mulled wine is perfect for cosy winter evenings, and making it at home will also fill your home with a nice wintry smell. This blog post contains an easy recipe for mulled wine, along with information about which wines to use for mulled wine.
Dating back to the Romans, mulled wine is drunk throughout Europe in the winter months and around Christmas time. One of the first recorded recipes for mulled wine in England dates back to a cookery book published in 1390 (The Forme of Cury). It included spices that we still use today to make mulled wine, like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, and also others like ginger, long pepper and even herbs like marjoram.
In this blog post, you’ll find an easy mulled wine recipe that you can make at home, along with some mulled wine tips as well. At the bottom of the post, you’ll also find examples of organic wines that you can use to make mulled wine.
Easy Mulled Wine Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 bottle of cheaper organic red wine
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 4 whole cloves
- 2 star anise
- 2 strips or orange rind, pared using a vegetable peeler (optional)
- Sufficient caster sugar to taste – start with 4 tablespoons
Instructions:
- To begin, open the bottle of wine and pour it into a pot. Place the pot on medium heat and let it begin to heat.
- Add in the sugar once you see the heat rising from the wine, and stir well to let it absorb into the wine. Add in the strips of orange rind/peel along with the cinnamon, cloves and star anise.
- Let the mixture heat for 10 to 15 minutes, but don’t let it boil.
- Next let the wine sit for half an hour or more, covered with a lid to keep the heat trapped inside.
- When ready to serve, return the wine to the stove and re-heat until it reaches your preferred temperature.
- Serve in mugs and enjoy!
A few notes and tips about making mulled wine at home
- Some also like to add Port to their mulled wine or even Brandy – it’s all up to you. You can even use Port to make mulled wine, it will be stronger, of course, as Port contains more alcohol.
- Other spices you could add could be nutmeg, cardamom, allspice and even some ginger. Don’t be afraid to experiment and find a spice combination to suit your tastes.
- Mulling sachets or pre-mixed mulling spices are available in most supermarkets. This can make things easier as you just need to drop them into the pot.
- You can also use lemon rind instead of orange rind in the above recipe.
- Whole cinnamon, cloves and star anise and things like orange slices make great garnishes for mulled wine.
- If you love white wine – don’t be afraid to try out mulled wine made with white wine. We’ve heard it can be great too!
- Mulled cider and even ale used to be more common in England too, see our easy recipe for mulled cider here.
- You can also make mulled wine in a slow cooker, find a recipe for that at the bottom of this blog post here.
Which wine should you use to make mulled wine?
Making mulled wine certainly isn’t the time to break out your most expensive bottle, like an Amarone or vintage Burgundy. But you should still use a good-quality bottle, however, as it’s mostly made up of wine. Many say that the best wines for mulled wins are ones that are richly fruity and medium- to heavier-bodied. Try making your mulled wine with an organic red wine like Syrah, Zinfandel, Spanish Grenache or Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot.
Here are some options to consider for making mulled wine at home (under about £12 or less).
- Emiliana Organic Adobe Syrah Reserva – a Chilean wine with a spicy, smoky flavour, and hints of blackcurrant.
£10.50
- Bodegas Latue Bohem Tempranillo / Garnacha – a good value organic red from Spain crammed with ripe juicy blackberry fruit on the bouquet.
£9.95
- Stellar Merlot No Added Sulphur – a no-added sulphur, super-soft, easy-drinking fruity Merlot made by one the world’s leading producers of no sulphur added wines.
£9.99
- Pierre Chavin Greenia Cabernet Sauvignon No Added Sulphur – another no sulphur added, this a Cabernet Sauvignon, that would be ideal for making mulled wine.
£12.50
- Vina Ijalba Rioja Tempranillo – with its beguiling raspberry jam character, this is one of our best-selling Tempranillo wines.
£11.50
- Organic Roots Rouge – a much loved fruit-forward French red blend made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah/Shiraz.
£10.75
- Stellar Live-a-Little Really Ravishing Red – last but not least, this is another red from Stellar in South Africa, a blend of Merlot and Shiraz.
£10.50
-
Toscar Tinto Bag-In-Box (3 Litres) – for a big batch of mulled wine for a party, consider this bag in box wine. With flavours somewhere between dark cherries and soft strawberries, it will blend perfectly with mulled wine spices.
£33.00
If you’re looking for more information about mulled wine, check out our Guide to Serving Mulled Wine or more about how to make mulled wine at home for another easy recipe.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this easy mulled wine recipe, and if you make this, we’d love to know what you think.
SIGN UP FOR £5 OFF YOUR FIRST ORDER HERE.
