Mulled Wine Recipe: Easy Spiced Glühwein for Cold Nights
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Sipping mulled wine seemed exotic when we first encountered the hot spiced concoction at Christmas markets as far away as Helsinki and Hamburg and as close as Philadelphia. For years, we were excited to order warming cups of glühwein when we traveled during the holiday season, but, until recently, we never thought about making mulled wine at home. We assumed that the recipe would be complicated. Plus, we didn’t want to spoil the experience of sipping mulled wine during our travels.
Color us surprised to discover that making mulled wine at home is super easy to do. All it takes is red wine, brandy and a handful of pantry ingredients. Homemade mulled wine has brought our Christmas market experiences straight to our home kitchen, and our house smells divine every time we whip up a batch.
🍸 This Recipe at a Glance
- Flavor: Warm, spiced and lightly sweet with orange and cinnamon
- Main Ingredients: Red wine, brandy, maple syrup, orange and whole spices
- Method: Simmer on low heat (never boil)
- Time: 25 minutes
- Servings: 6 (about 5 ounces each)
- Serve In: Heat-resistant glass mugs
- Garnish: Cinnamon stick, orange slice and star anise
- Difficulty: Easy
What Is Mulled Wine?
Mulled wine is essentially wine that’s flavored with mulling spices and heated until it’s warm. Most modern mulled wine recipes add a sweetener like honey or maple syrup and a bonus liquor like brandy or port to the mix. The end result is a hot spiced wine drink that warms both the body and soul from the inside out.
Fun Fact
Typical mulling spices include cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns and star anise (all used in this recipe) as well as allspice, cardamom and nutmeg.
History of Mulled Wine
Although mulled wine is ridiculously popular at Christmas markets in Germany, France and Scandinavia, none of those countries gets credit for inventing mulled wine. Credit goes to the ancient Romans, who sweetened and spiced their wine and spread the habit across their empire. One Roman recipe called conditum paradoxum mixed wine with honey, pepper and other spices.
Ingredients
Despite mulled wine’s complex flavors, you don’t need a lot of exotic items to make it at home. Our easy recipe requires the following ingredients:
Ingredient quantities are detailed in the printable recipe card below.
How to Make Mulled Wine
Making mulled wine at home is easy to do whether you’re entertaining or simply have a hankering for spiced hot wine. The hardest part is gathering the ingredients.
In this recipe, the first step is to pour a bottle of red wine and a quarter cup each of brandy and maple syrup into a medium saucepan.
Add mulling spices and a sliced orange to the pot.
Pro Tip
Peel the orange into wide strips with a vegetable peeler to achieve more citrus flavor and less bitter pith.
Mix the ingredients and bring the mixture to a simmer. Continue simmering for 20 minutes to an hour.
Pro Tip
While you don’t have to continuously stir while the mixture simmers, keep an eye on the pot to ensure that it doesn’t boil.
Strain out the mulling spices. You can do this all at once, or you can strain the mixture directly into each glass mug using a small mesh strainer.
Garnish with extra ingredients that you have on hand. We like to garnish our mulled wine with a cinnamon stick, an orange slice and a star anise pod.
Variations
The beautiful thing about mulled wine is that you can make it any way that you want. We recommend trying our recipe before you make any or all of the following variations:
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Mulled Wine Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 bottle red wine (750 ml)
- 1/4 cup brandy
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 orange (sliced)
- 4 cinnamon sticks
- 6 cloves (whole)
- 2 pods star anise
- 6 pink peppercorns (or 4 black peppercorns)
- cinnamon sticks, orange slices and star anise (optional garnishes)
Equipment
Instructions
- Pour red wine, brandy and maple syrup into a medium saucepan.
- Add mulling spices (cinnamon sticks, cloves, peppercorns and star anise) and orange slices. Gently stir.
- Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes to 1 hour. Do NOT bring to a boil.
- Strain out spices and serve hot in heat-resistant glass mugs. Optionally garnish each with a cinnamon stick, orange slice and star anise.
Nutrition
💡 Frequently Asked Questions
Mulled wine is wine heated with spices, citrus and a sweetener and served warm. Most recipes use red wine, but white wine works too. Typical mulling spices include allspice, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, peppercorns and star anise.
Our recipe uses red wine, brandy, maple syrup, an orange, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, star anise and pink peppercorns. You can swap honey or sugar for the maple syrup and port for the brandy.
Use an inexpensive, fruity red with soft tannins like Merlot, Garnacha, Zinfandel or a juicy Alentejo blend. Skip pricey bottles since the spices and sweetener hide their nuances. Heavily oaked or tannic reds can taste bitter once heated.
Simmer it on low heat for 20 minutes to an hour. Longer simmering cooks off more alcohol and can make the cloves and orange pith bitter. Don’t let it boil.
Some does but not all. USDA estimates show that a liquid simmered for 30 minutes keeps about 35% of its alcohol, and one simmered for an hour keeps about 25%. Mulled wine is still an alcoholic drink.
Yes. Make it up to a day ahead, strain out the spices and orange, let it cool and refrigerate it in a sealed container. Reheat it gently before serving.
Strained mulled wine keeps in the refrigerator for up to three days in a sealed container. Remove the spices and orange first so the flavor doesn’t turn bitter.
Warm it in a saucepan over low heat until it steams, stirring now and then. Don’t let it boil. For a single serving, microwave a mug in 30-second bursts.
Germans and Austrians call it glühwein, Swedes call it glögg and the French call it vin chaud. It’s vinho quente in Portugal and vino caliente in Spain.
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Funding
We purchased the ingredients and tools used to craft this mulled wine.
