Mulled Wine
A bottle of red wine warmed with orange, cinnamon and cloves until the whole kitchen smells like December. Keep it below a simmer and it stays smooth and mellow, never harsh.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Mulled Wine, in 5 ideas
- Never let it boil. Boiling burns off the alcohol, dulls the fruit and turns the spices medicinal. Steaming hot is hot enough.
- Use wine you would happily drink. Mulling forgives a modest bottle but not a bad one; a soft, fruity red is the right place to start.
- Whole spices only. Ground spices make the wine cloudy and gritty. Sticks, pods and whole cloves give their flavor and then strain out clean.
- Sweeten at the start, adjust at the end. The honey melts in early and rounds the wine; one final taste after steeping lets you land the sweetness exactly.
- Low and slow wins. Thirty gentle minutes marry wine and spice far better than ten fast ones, and the house smells wonderful the whole time.
What you need
Ingredients
- 1 bottle (750 ml) fruity red wine, such as Merlot
- 1 orange, sliced into rounds
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 6 whole cloves
- 2 star anise
- 1/4 cup brandy (optional)
How to make it
Method
Pour the wine into a large, heavy pot. Add the orange rounds, honey, cinnamon sticks, cloves and star anise, and stir once to dissolve the honey as it warms.
Set the pot over medium low heat and warm the wine slowly until it is steaming and just below a simmer, 160 to 170°F (71 to 77°C). This takes about 10 minutes. Watch it: it must never boil.
Drop the heat to the lowest setting and hold the wine there, steaming gently, for 20 to 30 minutes. Taste as you go; the longer it steeps, the deeper the spice.
Stir in the brandy, if using, and taste for sweetness, adding a spoon more honey if you like.
Strain out the spices and orange slices, or ladle around them, and pour into heatproof glasses or mugs.
Serve at once, with a fresh orange slice or a cinnamon stick in each glass. Keep the pot on the stove's lowest setting so it stays warm for second cups.
Make it ahead and reheat gently: mulled wine keeps 3 days in the fridge and tastes rounder on day two, warmed back to steaming and never boiled.