Mulled Wine - Perfect Yuletide Tipple

We need flavour, warmth and depth to get us through these cold, gray days; a shallow Gin & Tonic or thin glass of Pinot Grigio just won't cut it. Enter mulled wine.

Mulled wine must be the perfect Yuletide tipple.  We need flavour, warmth and depth to get us through these cold, gray days; a shallow Gin & Tonic or thin glass of Pinot Grigio just won’t cut it.  Enter mulled wine, which even sounds like a hot stone massage.  This piping winey delight consists of red wine (preferably a claret) and sugar, enriched with spices like cloves, cinammon sticks and orange zest, and fortified with a glug of port or vodka, for a turbo kick.  You can freestyle with the recipe adding berries, vanilla pods, cardammon or juice as the great thing about mulled wine is that you can’t go wrong.  It’s a fool-proof cockles warmer, stirred and sipped all over the world: it goes by the name Glühwein in Austria and Germany, Glögg in Sweden and Denmark, Navegado in Chile, Vin Chaud in France.

You can find mulled wine lurking on most pub boards, surrounded by chalked sprigs of holly or bells, or bobbing around a crisp Borough Market or Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland in paper cups.  It’s the perfect fuel boost at Somerset House’s ice-rink, though Tom Aikens’ mulled cider is perhaps the more popular novelty fare there.  There are lovely variations on the drink such as mulled wine syrup for a festive pannacotta or an indulgent mulled wine hot chocolate to put you to rights.

However it comes, in a glass or a mug, with a wedge of lemon or nuts adrift, this Winter sangria keeps spirits lopped high.  The sugar content spurs you on to complete your Christmas market shopping, or maintains bonhomie through your work Christmas drinks when a sensible vodka soda just wouldn’t touch the sides. 

It’s the perfect drink to whip up for friends in a vast cauldron, easy and fun to make and a forgiving broth in which to sink all those bottles of cheap red wine you hadn’t previously dared open.  Everything goes in and once the flavours really get hold any metallic aftertaste in your stringy £3.99 Shiraz is eclipsed.  You can then just leave it ticking on a low heat, ladling it out for guests as and when they arrive.  No need for the pricey Diptyque Feu De Bois candle….

I strongly recommend that you customise your brew with different spices and twists and be inventive, but there are always Fairtrade Mulled Wine, spice mix kits Steenbergs Organic Mulled Wine Sachets for £12.65.

if you’re after the ultimate quickfix.  The lofty throng of cloves, nutmeg, ginger and cinammon released when you open these packets doubles up as a Christmas-on-tap sniffer when you’re waning at your computer having forgotten the point of the whole jingly jamboree.  The mix can also be used to spice up stewed fruit.  At the end of the finger-chilling day whether you fake it or make mulled wine is a no-brainer; there's no need to mull it over.  

Image:
Taken from Adventures with Chocolate  by Paul A. Young.
Published by Kyle Cathie Ltd
Photography: Anders Scønnemann