Mulled wine is for guests you don’t know yet.
The spices do the work. That is the point of it. A general feeds his men before a hard march — not with the good stores, with the workable ones. Treated right, the workable ones are enough. The wine doesn’t need to be good. It needs to be hot, and the cinnamon needs to go in early, and the honey at the end.
I have made this in a pot over a campfire with wine that smelled of the road. The guests were strangers. The cup warmed their hands before they knew whether to trust me. That is what it’s for.
Mulled Wine
Serves 6.
- 1 bottle red wine — not your good wine, your working wine
- 2 cups water
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 6 whole cloves
- 2 allspice berries
- 1 strip of orange peel, no white pith — pith is bitter, and bitterness is not what you’re serving
- 3 tablespoons honey
- A blade of mace if you have it
Everything goes in the pot cold. Bring it up slow — not boiling, never boiling. A boil drives off the smell, and the smell is half of what you’re giving them. Hold it at a low steam for twenty minutes. Longer if the wine is rough. Strain through cloth. Pour into heavy cups.
The cups matter. A thin cup cools too fast and tells your guest you weren’t thinking about them.