Well with the cold weather here (-10C overnight here in Fife) I thought a mulled wine was a good idea. This made me wonder if the Community would see this as a sacrilegious act on a wine bottle or a good idea for a wine needing a helping hand of spices and sugars. Any favourite mulling recipes and also any favourite wine pairings.
Do any of you use this as an excuse to wheel out the BBQ in winter and get your bratwurst and curry sauce out or are you a stay in doors and gather round any heating you feel you can a) afford b) justify against any carbon offset of planted trees etc.
I know I have several 99p Woolworths cherry trees now substantial trees 19 years later which need pruning and using as fuel for the homemade smoker or BBQ so a mulled wine seem the perfect match.
Mrs C has been trying various supermarket ready made bottles. The favourite so far is from Tesco, the least favoured was one from Lidl, bottled in Germany, which tasted really synthetic - very surprising, I had higher hopes.
Iâm not a great fan* myself, except when circumstances demand it, and letâs face it they donât come around that often. I think the trick is to forget any association at all with wine, and just think of it as a hot, sweet, spicy drink.
Iâm more easily persuaded when thereâs a decent slug of brandy included.
There are plenty more ambitious recipes out there, but this is a good basic one weâve used in the past, taken from a supermarket Christmas drinks catalogue thingy from about 2014:
Mulled wine is one of those things Iâve personally never enjoyed unless freezing cold [me] and beautifully warm [the wine]. And then simply as one means of warming up if thereâs nothing else available. I just do not like the taste at all. Ditto with mince pies, Xmas pud etc. Iâd almost rather eat a chunk of mud. Bit extreme I know, but thereâs something about that âXmas spicesâ taste that just violently rocks my boat.
Not often, but we (4 families I hasten to add) did get though a flask of it on our walk last weekend. Was very welcome and I also found it much improved by a slug of sloe gin, which started the walk in a separate hip flask.
I like it as one of the many christmas rituals. As a drink though, I prefer mulled cider.
Agree with everyone who said they like it best when itâs very cold outside. On a weekend in an extremely cold Prague a few years ago, my other half and I drank gallons of the stuff (on sale from kiosks everywhere) to make getting between museums/restaurants/bars bearable.
I would definitely echo the sentiment it needs to be cold enough weather to justify it. Also on reflection on the few occasions I have most enjoyed it I have not surprisingly been in a German Christmas market. First time was back in 1991 in Wiesbaden when it was actually snowing at the time I had my first ever Currywurst. Most traditional was a few days later in Heidelberg so I guess consumed at these locations it might not be a crime.
I tried it with good(ish, a bottle of Guigal 2016) wine, which is not worth it. In a case of promoting past digital antics, Mulling things over â Nerdy Booze is my blog post on it.
Watched the landlord in our local filling glasses from a wine box, origin Slovenia and containing âwine from the EUâ, which he was then microwaving.
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