Bryan and I fell in love with mulled wine when we travelled to Poland and Belgium in the winter months. We highly enjoyed taking refuge from the cold in darkly lit taverns with steaming mugs of hot wine! It has now become a tradition to make our own hot wine around the holidays and this simple mulled wine recipe reminds us of Europe!
Quick and easy to make
Delicately spiced
Served warm
And there’s no need to splurge on expensive wine!
Ingredients For Spiced Mulled Wine
This simple mulled wine recipe uses just a few ingredients that are easy to have on hand.
First… you need a bottle of red wine.
Merlot or Zinfandel are often suggested as the best varieties of red wine for making mulled wine but I have made this recipe with Cabernet Sauvignon and really enjoyed it.
A great thing about making mulled wine is that you don’t need to splurge on an expensive bottle. We tend to buy a bottle in the CAD $15 range.
If you are looking for a vegan wine as most wines do contain animal derived ingredients, we find the website Barnivore to be helpful. Barnivore has a vegan wine directory that you can search or scroll through and find a wine that you have access to.
If scrolling through a directory of vegan wines seems a little overwhelming I like to do a quick search for vegan wineries in my area. Hopefully, you may find something near to you that can narrow your search!
The other ingredients you will need for this simple mulled wine recipe are:
- One orange
- Whole cloves
- Star Anise
- Cinnamon Sticks
- Orange Juice
- And cane sugar or your sugar of choice
How To Make This Simple Mulled Wine Recipe
This hot wine recipe is as simple as:
- Boiling the water and sugar until the sugar dissolves.
- Adding the orange juice, sliced orange poked with whole cloves, cinnamon, and star anise.
- Reducing the heat to the gentlest of simmers. Adding the wine.
- And heating it through for roughly 30 minutes to combine the flavours!
Tips For Mulled Wine Success
Some tips from experience to make the process for this spiced mulled wine recipe as simple as possible are:
- Poke the whole cloves into your orange before slicing the orange.
- To save your fingertips a little bit of discomfort… I find it much easier to poke the orange with the cloves while there is more to hold on to. Trying to poke the small cloves through the orange rind when it has been sliced thinly is a little more tricky!
But most importantly…
- Do not let your wine boil! If the wine boils you will boil off the alcohol content but the flavour can also turn bitter. The safest ways to ensure your wine doesn’t boil are to:
- Err on a lower temperature and raise it as needed.
- Watch your mulled wine closely.
- And heat it with the lid off. (If you do place a lid on your pot, keep it only slightly covering the pot and watch it very closely to make sure the trapped heat doesn’t cause the wine to heat up enough that it boils).
Recipe Cost
This simple mulled wine recipe serves 4 and costs us approximately: CAD $1.10 in addition to the bottle of wine we choose. As we tend to choose a bottle around $15, this recipe tends to cost about $4 per mug of mulled wine.
If we visit a local Christmas market or bar for mulled wine a mug can cost us closer to $10 so making this recipe at home is certainly a thriftier option!
Let me know in the comments below if you enjoy a mug of hot wine and how you like this recipe.
I consulted some of my German and Swiss friends about their family recipes and sometimes vanilla, cardamom, and nutmeg can be added AND some recipes include orange juice and others do not. So let me know if you have a beloved family recipe and what other holiday drinks might be a tradition for you! Another one of our favourites is this warm apple cider based Hot Wassail!
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Simple & Spiced Mulled Wine To Cuddle Up With
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This simple mulled wine recipe is ready in 40 minutes and perfect for the holidays. Customize it how you like, get cozy, and sip away!
Ingredients
- ¾ cup water
- ¼ cup cane sugar
- ½ cup orange juice, preferably without pulp*
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 star anise
- 1 orange*
- 10 whole cloves
- 1 bottle red wine (merlot works well, see notes for vegan wine suggestions)*
*Ingredients you need that are not part of our pantry and freezer tips.
Instructions
- Before getting started I like to slice the orange in half. Keep half the orange to garnish your glasses and use the other half in the mulled wine while it cooks. Poke the whole cloves into the half of the orange that will be used for heating the wine. I find it easier to poke the cloves into the orange and then slice the orange into rounds. (See the photos in the blog post for a reference).
- Start the mulled wine by adding the water and sugar to your pot. Bring the mixture to a low boil and boil until the sugar dissolves.
- Reduce the heat and add the orange juice, cinnamon, star anise, and the sliced rounds of orange studded with cloves. Cook for 1 minute.
- Reduce the heat further to a very low simmer and add the wine (you do not want the wine to boil as the alcohol will boil off and the taste will turn bitter!). Warm the wine very gently for 30 minutes with the lid off.
- Serve with a cinnamon stick and the fresh slices of orange.
- To make this recipe in your slow cooker you can boil the water and sugar on the stovetop and then add everything to your slow cooker and heat for 1 hour or until warm. Switch the slow cooker to “keep warm” and serve when ready. Alternatively, make the mulled wine on the stovetop and transfer to a slow cooker to keep warm if you will be sipping on it throughout the night.
- Store completely cooled mulled wine in the fridge for up to 3 days and reheat gently on the stovetop. Make sure to check out our spiked apple cider based Hot Wassail holiday drink too!
Notes
Approximate Cost: Roughly CAD $1.10 in addition to the bottle of wine. We typically buy a $15 bottle of red wine. A great thing about mulled wine is that you do not need to splurge on the wine.
Merlot and Zinfandel are often suggested as the best varieties of red wine to use for mulled wine. I have made this recipe with bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon and enjoyed them more than mulled wine made with bottles of Merlot so feel free to choose red wine that you like and that you have available to you!
If you would like to purchase a vegan wine as most wines do contain animal derived ingredients, the website Barnivore is a helpful vegan wine directory. I also find it helpful to do a general search for local vegan wineries and see what pops up in your area!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Category: Hot Drinks
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: European
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