Warm Up with Mulled Wine

In true midwestern fashion, the weather has been pinballing between all four seasons lately. Even if it’s warm one day, there’s no guarantee we won’t get a snowstorm 24 hours later. It keeps us on our toes, I guess. At least it means we can eke out a few more cold-weather experiences before hanging up our snow boots.

Mulled wine is a common drink in northern and central Europe during cold weather, and making it is a favorite tradition of mine. The exact ingredients vary across regions, but broadly speaking, it is red wine heated slowly with fruits and spices. It is a fantastic way to warm up on cold nights, and simmering it imparts a delicious aroma to your kitchen. It’s a scent that I closely associate with comfort and warmth. While you can buy bottled mulled wine from various liquor companies (our family’s favorite is Gluntz Family Winery’s Vin Glögg), it’s also really nice to mull your own. Making your own allows you to tailor the spices and sweetness to your personal taste, and it’s really easy! I’m not going to share a particular recipe with you—instead, I’ll break down some different ingredients that can go into mulled wine so you can experiment and create your own personal blend.

Common ingredients include oranges, cinnamon, cloves, anise, and allspice.

Wine

You need to start with a base of red wine. You don’t need anything fancy, but it should be a dry red that you generally like the taste of. We tend to prefer Tempranillo, but we’ve also used a red blend to good effect. Some mulled wine recipes have you mixing wines and port or other various liquors; you can certainly do so, but keep in mind what flavors you are adding when you do since that might impact the amount of spices and other ingredients you’ll want to use. When you’re just starting out, it’s easiest just to grab a bottle of affordable red wine and go from there.

Apple Cider

When I say apple cider, I mean the fresh-pressed stuff that you often find in the produce section of the grocery store. It should be unfiltered and unsweetened, rich with tasty appley goodness. Adding 1 cup to 1 bottle of red wine will give you a nice flavor boost in one easy step. That measure isn’t set in stone—it’s intended as a starting place. Feel free to play around and adjust it as needed to get the result you want.

Sweeteners

It is typical to add some sweetening agent to mulled wine. In Germany, it’s traditional to set a pressed block of rum-soaked sugar over your cup and set it on fire, so the sugar rum melts into the mulled wine. We have two disaster cats who like to knock things over, so we don’t tempt fate trying this. Instead, we use honey to add some sweetness to our mulled wine. Start by adding ¼ cup honey into one bottle of wine. You can also use white or brown sugar or even maple syrup; these will slightly change the flavor.

Spices

There are a handful of spices commonly used in mulling wine, but which ones you use are entirely your choice. There are just a few guidelines. For example, you want to use whole spices rather than ground. Otherwise you’ll get a gritty texture to your mulled wine that isn’t very pleasant. You can drop the spices directly into the wine as it mulls, then strain them out after. You can also put them in a tea bag to make the process a little easier. In any case, here are some starting points for amounts, assuming you are using 1 bottle of red wine to start.

• Cinnamon: 3 sticks, each 3–4 inches long
• Star Anise: 1 whole pod
• Cloves: 5 whole cloves
• Allspice: 5 whole berries
• Green Cardamom: 3 whole pods
• Fresh Ginger: 1 inch, thinly sliced

Pick and choose which spices you want! You don’t need to use all of them; our family recipe only uses cloves and cinnamon. If you don’t want to mess around with all that, you can also use premade mulling spice mixes. These generally have instructions for the amount to use.

Fruits

Oranges add some nice brightness and sweetness to mulled wine. You can add the juice and zest separately, but it’s simpler to just chop the orange in half and chuck it in the pot. You can also vary the flavor by adding lemon, though I personally recommend keeping your citrus predominantly oranges. After things have simmered and you’re ready to drink or bottle the mulled wine, remove the orange halves and squeeze them into the wine.

Other Alcohols

If you wish, you can fortify the mulled wine with other alcohols. Rum, brandy, port, and vodka are all used in various recipes. You can add these directly to the mulling wine or add them to individual mugs according to preference. Start small. You don’t want to overpower your delicious mulled wine!

Once you’ve determined your recipe, making the mulled wine is super simple: just put everything in a pot over the stove or into a crockpot and simmer it for a couple of hours. Do not let it boil! Remove the spices and fruits when it’s ready to drink. Bottle the leftovers and reheat in the microwave a mug at a time. I hope you enjoy!