I recently poured at an event and thought it would be fun to include a festive spin on my usually natural wine line up and serve Mulled Wine/Vin Chaud. I was a little unsure of how it would turn out using a natural wine since you have to a) add sugar and b) heat the wine, cool the wine, and then re-heat to serve but I did my test batch with a 00 Italian and it seemed to hold up! Most recipes call for a cheap boxed wine and I needed to make a lot so I went with a case of liter sized Ercole (100% barbera). I learned that the key with mulled wine is not to over heat it and avoid simmering. Anything above 175F will start to cook off the alch, so I used an induction burner to control the temp. My final product was only 10 liters, so I still lost about two bottles lol. I steeped it with traditional mulling spices and sweetened it with a homemade hoja santa simple syrup. I think this helped stabilize the wine. Lastly, for the spirit, I used some of this apertivo made naturally in Colorado. The whole process took about 2 hours. I made it the night before, cooled it, and then reheated at the event using the induction burner. The final product was a beautiful woodsy, christmas-y spiced drink that I was really happy with and was a crowd favorite! Highly recommend if you’re looking to spice up your holiday cocktails and wine list 🙂
TenderLightning
I’m a big fan of the liter Ercole! It’s our “house” wine at home 🙂 Thanks for posting the recipe!
shedrinkscoffee
This is on rotation for house wine at my house too and made mulled wine for an ugly sweater party. Didn’t have leftovers (2 bottles) but turned out pretty tasty imo.
3 Comments
I recently poured at an event and thought it would be fun to include a festive spin on my usually natural wine line up and serve Mulled Wine/Vin Chaud.
I was a little unsure of how it would turn out using a natural wine since you have to a) add sugar and b) heat the wine, cool the wine, and then re-heat to serve but I did my test batch with a 00 Italian and it seemed to hold up!
Most recipes call for a cheap boxed wine and I needed to make a lot so I went with a case of liter sized Ercole (100% barbera). I learned that the key with mulled wine is not to over heat it and avoid simmering. Anything above 175F will start to cook off the alch, so I used an induction burner to control the temp. My final product was only 10 liters, so I still lost about two bottles lol.
I steeped it with traditional mulling spices and sweetened it with a homemade hoja santa simple syrup. I think this helped stabilize the wine. Lastly, for the spirit, I used some of this apertivo made naturally in Colorado.
The whole process took about 2 hours. I made it the night before, cooled it, and then reheated at the event using the induction burner.
The final product was a beautiful woodsy, christmas-y spiced drink that I was really happy with and was a crowd favorite! Highly recommend if you’re looking to spice up your holiday cocktails and wine list 🙂
I’m a big fan of the liter Ercole! It’s our “house” wine at home 🙂 Thanks for posting the recipe!
This is on rotation for house wine at my house too and made mulled wine for an ugly sweater party. Didn’t have leftovers (2 bottles) but turned out pretty tasty imo.