Hot Spiced Mulled Wine for your Valentine
by Aimee
Temperatures in Montreal are shockingly low today (-29C!) and I’m here with a suggestion on how to stay warm this Valentine’s Day – with a thermos of hot spiced mulled wine.
My first trip to London happened to be at Christmastime, when Fortnum & Mason displayed plum puddings on pedestals in their windows and Oxford Street was trimmed in holiday lights. I wandered around Borough Market, stopping to get a meat pie and an enormous cup of mulled wine. There were many firsts on my maiden UK trip, but that hot, sweet wine was the first thing I recreated at home.
It took a few tries, but I eventually came up with this recipe that is delicately spiced and not too sweet. The key is cooking a spiced syrup, then adding and gently heating the wine. You never want to boil the whole batch, or you will burn off the alcohol.
On weekend, we take two thermoses out to the sledding hill or the skating rink: hot spiced cocoa for the kids and mulled wine for the adults. Even on the coldest of days the robust drink warms us from the inside out.
ALL photos by Tim Chin
Mulled wine is too good to only simmer once a year. Keep this recipe in your back pocket for entertaining all winter long, starting with a batch for today.
Happy Valentine’s Day, where every you may be! And fellow Montrealers, stay warm today…
| Hot Spiced Mulled Wine | Print |
- 1 bottle red wine (750mL)
- ¼ cup raw cane sugar
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 6 whole allspice
- 2 whole star anise
- 1 large orange, washed
- 1 cup ruby port
- In a medium pot, combine 1 cup red wine, sugar, cinnamon, allspice and star anise. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Stir to ensure that all the sugar is dissolved. The syrup will be dark and fragrant.
- Slice the orange into 1/4-inch rounds, peel and all. Carefully add orange slices to the pot. Arrange them so they are submerged under the spiced syrup. Partially cover the pot with a lid and infuse with the oranges for 10 minutes.
- Pour in the remaining bottle of red wine and the port and stir to combine.
- Over low heat, warm the mulled wine to the desired temperature for serving. Stir well, then strain through a small sieve into coffee cups or a thermos. Serve hot, with an orange slice.
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