An Easy Mulled Wine Recipe That Breaks Some Rules

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Mulled Wine Recipe

Hello, and welcome to a mulled wine recipe blog.

I remember the very first time I tried mulled wine.

A very dear friend was making it for a bunch of us during a wine night in.

I was surprised that I had never tried it before and had seemingly never heard of it.

Mulled wine in and of itself had eluded my very radar of all things festive and boozy and I couldn’t believe it.

Year after year following this initial mulled wine experience, I dreamed of making it for myself.

I experienced a slight anxiety when I googled the mulled wine recipe.

Google “mulled wine recipe” and you’ll see what I mean.

I was met with internal overwhelm at the many variations to the same recipe.

My brain would say, “which is the correct one and which ingredients do I not have?”

It turns out that I had almost none of them……

This year, as I was grocery shopping before the holiday season hit……but what did I see?

Cinnamon sticks standing out in an aisle and in that moment I said to myself;

“Girl, grab these so you HAVE to try making mulled wine this year. No excuses. Not this year. You’re making it.”

A Creative Approach

With that, I knew that the pressure was half way off.

The other thing that made me nervous was that people added more than just wine to the drink.

Mulled wine calls for a variety of spices and varying hard alcohol’s, and the decisions seemed a bit much.

I finally caught on that a mulled wine recipe really was just a recipe that is something you can kind of get creative with.

Many mulled wine recipes call for rum, some say brandy, some call for a juice of some kind.

I discovered that the making of mulled wine is a creative and solo journey and no one is going to make the recipe in a text book perfect format, nor should you.

How I Free-styled This Recipe

With that, I free-styled in the kitchen and to my surprise, it turned out really great.

I had to make my mulled wine recipe twice.

I am happy to have experienced both versions at different temperatures.

The first time, I boiled the mulled wine recipe and its ingredients, so it turned into a deliciously sweet and fancy grape juice.

I was not mad at it for a second.

The second time, I found the mulled wine recipe was just right temperature wise.

Thank God.

Using Already At Home Ingredients

I made a promise to myself, that I would not overcomplicate this recipe and that the only two ingredients anyone making this recipe would really need to shop for, would be the booze themselves.

This is a recipe that I wanted to make that was for the person who had most ingredients already in their kitchen and who possibly might be snowed in and looking for something festive and warm to drink.

A hug in a mug.

This turned out to be a perfect experiment because I did not have much honey left in my cupboards (one of the ingredients I use in most things)…….. and so I had to add actual white sugar, and that is what the goal was……to make due with what is already at home.

I think I succeeded.

My Mulled Wine Recipe

(serves 4-5 people)

• One bottle of your cheapest red wine. I used a cabernet.
• ½ cup of brandy ( I used a cheap 4.5 star review brandy called 1889 and I didn’t hate it).
• ½ tsp of ground cloves
• ¼ tsp of nutmeg
• One small orange cut into garnish sized slices (I used the festive small oranges that are in season).
• 2 Cinnamon sticks broken in halves
• ½ tsp of honey
• ½ tsp of vanilla
• 1/4^th cup of sugar, but if you need to do a ½ cup of sugar that will work too. It’ll be on the sweeter side.

Directions

After gathering all the ingredients into a large pot, turn the stove on low and let the mulled wine get warm.

It can take anywhere from 15 minutes to get warm or up to an hour.

Keep the stove on low as people come in and out of the kitchen to refill their cups.

Enjoy this mulled wine recipe and let me know if you try this recipe, or if you decide to do a remix of this classic on your own.

If mulled wine is not your forte, please check out my latest post on a very fun mojito.