Your Guide To Making Mulled Wine

Make mulled wine today with Rohan Nihalani, founder of Morgan Beverages; it’s delicious practice for the festive year-end

The sweet notes of berries, the savoury spices, and the smoothness of carefully-mulled wine! We’re moving into that merry time of year when you look forward to experimenting with deeper condiments and notes along with your most desired wine. While any time could be wine o’clock, mulled wine is best enjoyed during slightly cooler weather. Many people believe that sangria and spritzers are for the summer, whereas mulled and spiced wine is for the fall and winter. For many people across cultures, wine is synonymous with Christmas. The word ‘mull’ reverberates patience and time, which can be considered the foremost ingredients of mulled wine. Letting the flavours seep, letting the temperature of the final concoction cool down, and ultimately pouring it into your wine glass requires considerable patience.

Experiment And Explore

Mulled wine is more than just cinnamon-infused wine. The choice of wine that you narrow down on, the fruits such as berries and currants, the herbs such as thyme and lavender can make for a timeless experience. The intensity of flavours deepens with the amount of time given for the diffusion of the additions. While you turn the stove on, the taste and body of the wine start to evolve as heat and evaporation alter and enhance its composition. In order to avoid an utter loss of flavours, it is advised that you heat it on a low to medium flame with a lid to cover the vessel. Since alcohol is flammable, do be cautious about the possibility of fire accidents that could escalate quickly. Another point to note is that one should not heat the wine in an iron vessel, as this could lead to an unpleasant taste due to the reaction of the wine with the metal.

Once you master your mulled wine recipe, experiment with different spices and herbs

To Grind Or Not?

It is best to let whole spices diffuse in the wine, so as to avoid chunks. In essence, you shouldn’t need to strain the mulled wine and get rid of all the solid additions before you prepare to pour it into a goblet or flute. The whole spices and fruits should remain in the wine till you put the glass down. The flavours keep infusing and making the wine more intense. The balance in flavours is maintained when the spices and condiments have been equally diffused. If spices are crushed or ground into finer pieces, they will interfere with the wine-drinking experience as spices are highly potent; if you bite one small bit, your taste buds could be overwhelmed and the rest of the wine might taste bland or even bitter.

Let’s Get To Mulling

First, you are going to need a bottle of your most preferred wine, then we require four cups of apple cider, a quarter cup of raw honey, along with our spices, which are the most important. You can choose these: 2 sticks of cinnamon, 2 to 3 cloves. The last and foremost ingredient would be orange. Once collected, we’ll go on to combine all the ingredients and mix them well. While some people use orange juice, some prefer to squeeze fresh oranges; it depends on what tantalises your tastebuds. Once all this is done, put the pan on the stove and boil the decoction for roughly eight to 10 minutes, turn the heat off, and let it rest for a few minutes.

Before You Pour

Before you pour the seasoned decoction, you must be careful of the temperature of the wine. Wine flutes are made of delicate glass that could easily explode or get cracked if you pour extremely hot beverages into them. Therefore, you must wait for a few minutes so that your wine cools down.

From being a seasonal favourite to simply being a classic with endless combinations, mulled wine truly uplifts the senses and extends beyond drinking wine. It is a visual, olfactory, gustatory and complete delight in itself or with appropriate food pairings. I hope you relish the experience of preparing your mulled wine and also inspire those around you to give it a try.

Images: Shutterstock | For representational purposes only

Also see: Bring home a taste of the Middle East with these bites (one of the delivers across India)

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