Until I met my wife 6 years ago I had never had the pleasure of enjoying mulled wine. Her family prepares it every year for Christmas and on ski vacations and for their wineries Holiday Open House. Since it is served warm it is a perfect treat for a cold day, but if it’s not cold, don’t let that stop you from enjoying some. As with a lot of wine concoctions (Cold duck, etc.), mulled wine was originally created as a way to make “bad” wine drinkable again. It seems as every country has a tradition for mulled wine and thus there own name for it, most of which translate to a version of “hot wine”.
German, Glühwein (“glowing (as in heat, not light) wine”); in Danish, Gløgg (“heated”); in French, vin chaud (“hot wine”); in Italian, vin brulé (French for “burnt wine”); in Brazil, Quentão (“big hot”); in Romanian vin fiert (“boiled wine”); in Serbian, Kuvano vino (“boiled wine”); in Polish, Grzane wino (“heated wine”) or just Grzaniec (“heating” or “heated” thing); the Slovak Varené vino (“boiled wine”); in Czech Svařené víno (“boiled wine”), in Croatian and Slovenian Kuhano vino (“cooked wine”) and also Kuhanec (“the cooked thing”) in Slovenian; the Hungarian forralt bor (“boiled wine”); the Latvian karstvīns; the Estonian hõõgvein (“glowing wine”); in Bulgarian Греяно вино (“greyano vino”) (“heated wine”); the Russian глинтвейн (“glintwein”), in Latvian “karstvīns” (hot wine) and the Chilean Spanish Navegado (from Wikipedia)
Below is my mother-in-laws recipe:
· 3 Liters red wine (we use Merlot) but you can use something like a hearty burgundy also
· 8 sticks of cinnamon
· 32 cloves
· 3 cups sugar
· 1 cup lemon juice
· 1Tbs nutmeg
· 3 cups water
“Combine all of the above in a pot and bring to a low boil with the cover on. I put the nutmeg and cloves in a small bag for easy removal and strain out the cinnamon sticks with a spoon. Boil for ten minutes.”
Let stand overnight and then take out the spices. Serve warm!
Cheers and Happy Holidays!
Anything Wine 
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