Mulled Wine For warm dinners, and cosy nights!

Good Evening guys and gals,

Who doesn't love some mulled wine? The spices warm you up from the inside, the familiar comforting taste of a warm red takes you back to all the cold nights in Christmas growing up, and the best part is your house always has that sweet smell of Cinnamon and Vanilla after making it! We can thank the Romans for mulled wine, they couldn’t stand average quality red wine, so they invented mulled wine as an efficient way to make below-average red wine taste better, have more character, and actually be worth drinking as they built their empire. So don't worry about splashing out on an expensive red, any basic bottle of wine will do - I try and find a Pinot Noir for its light body, subtle composition and elegant fragrance as all these add to the final product!

There are many mulled wine recipes out there, and the one I use is an amalgamation of a few I've come across. I have also found, through a large amount of trial and error, you can add a little bit of any thematic spice you like, however only in small amounts as too much can quite easily upset the balance.

Something else I have learnt is to place all the aromatics, spices and sugar into the pan first, then just cover with red wine and then leave to boil and reduce to a syrup. In doing this you allow all the ingredients to release their flavour, and not be drowned in red wine, creating a much more concentrated and punchy flavour in your final product.

Lastly, feel free to add another liquor to your Mulled wine. I tend to add a Grappa (a grape-based brandy although any brandy will do) for a more punchy and sharp flavour, a Sloe gin for a stronger and a more rounded flavoured mulled wine. Finally, you can add a berry liquor like Creme de Cassis or some Chambord for a sweeter and more aromatic final product. However you can totally add whatever you like to your wine, in fact, it's somewhat of an old tradition to spike the mulled wine - this is why you can get so many different flavours from so many places.

Anyway here's the recipe, L’chaim and enjoy Xander

Ingredients list: 250g of Caster Sugar - or 140ml honey/maple syrup. 2 Oranges peeled and juiced

1 Lemon juiced

2 bottles of red wine (about 1.5 litres) ½ cup of chosen liquor. (or skip if you don't have)

Spices: 2 Star Anise | 2 Cloves | 2 Cardamom pods | 2 Cinnamon Sticks (broken into halves) 2 oranges worth of peel

Instructions 1] Add all your spices and the peel and juice of your 2 oranges and the juice of your lemon to your pan. Add all your sugar (or sweetener of choice) and just cover with red wine 2] Bring to Boil and then leave to simmer until you have a nice thick syrup - about 5 minutes.

3] Once you have the Syrup base, pour in the rest of your red wine, and your liquor of choice. Then leave to simmer away with the lid on for a minimum of 30 minutes and a max of 3 hours.

4] Once simmered for the desired length of time, take a mesh strainer and strain out to serve in mugs, or Just directly ladle from the pan.