08th December 2020
How to make the ultimate mulled wine | The Sun Tavern tips and recipe
Tips for Mulled Wine | Ross Painter Head of Drink Development at The Umbrella Project
Making a mulled wine at home can be fairly simple, heat wine, add winter spices and a bit of sugar. But making a truly delicious one can be a little more challenging. So we've compiled some tips to help you make a mulled wine that will leave you and your friends rubbing their bellies and grinning for ear to ear. I suggest a long winter walk on a sunny day with a loved one and a thermos filled with mulled wine, perfect.
The Wine
When it comes to the wine you want a rich, bold red wine to give depth and complexity that compliments the winter spices. The wine also needs to be flavoursome enough to withstand heating. The wine is a foundation to support the other flavours The best red wines to achieve all this are Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon - they don't need to be expensive or fresh, a wine that's been open for three to four days is probably not ideal with a steak dinner but is perfect for mulling.
The Temperature
With regards to temperature one or two on your hob is good. This should achieve a temperature of around 50 - 60 C ( 122 - 140 Fahrenheit ) given ethanol’s boiling point is 78.4 celsius, this temperature is hot enough to enjoy but not too hot you lose any yummy booze. For the recipe listed below you'll need a six litre ( 200 Oz ) pot with a lid, you'll need the lid in between serves or it will slowly reduce and become concentrated and unbalanced.
The Spices
The spices are your classic Christmas spices, avoid using powdered spices as they tend to either clump up or settle to the bottom. It's best to add the whole spice and remove it at the correct time to ensure the desired level of flavour. The recipe listed below is a classic mulled wine, you can add some more sass to the recipe by adding more extravagant spices if you wish. Add 100g of Juniper berries to the recipe will add tartness, 200g of 80% cacao chocolate for richness or a small bunch of thyme and rosemary for a nice herbal note.
Other Options for Mulling.
You're not restricted to just mulling with red wine, there are lots of other options you can use to bring some variety to the festive season. We've listed a few twists below.
- Ginger beer
Replacing Malbec / Cab Sav with some ginger beer, we use Umbrella London Ginger Beer, with honey replacing the caster sugar in the same amount and replacing the orange for cloudy apple juice. I also pour a couple slugs of cider brandy in too!
- Mulled Cider
Replacing the Malbec / Cab Sav with a medium dry cider, we use Umbrella London Apple Cider, then replacing the caster sugar with honey and the orange with cranberry juice. Also adding 4 clementines quartered and some 8 cardamom pods really works
- Mulled Beer
Using half IPA half stout, we use Weird Beard Five O'clock Shadow and Of of Office Stout, to replace the Malbec / Cab Sav and the orange juice, adding 100g of cacao nibs, replacing the caster sugar with 450g of muscovado sugar and 400ml of Irish Whiskey.
Recipe:
The Sun Tavern's Mulled Wine
Ingredients
4 bt (2800ml) Malbec / Cab Sav red wine
1 lt Orange Juice
2 lt Water
600g Caster sugar
2 vanilla pod
2 Cinnamon
15 cloves
2 star anise
Grating of nutmeg
Method
Add all the ingredients into a 6lt / 200oz pot and put on the lid. Turn hob on to the lowest temperature. After 10 minutes, check the temperature, it should be between 50 and 60 C (122 to 140 F ). After 1 hour remove the spices by carefully transferring the liquid through a sieve to another pot. Return to heat, when serving, replacing the lid after.
Keep an eye on the heat, if you are using gas the lowest setting on the smallest burner may still may be too hot.
Simply have the pot half on half and off the heat to reach the correct temperature.
To garnish simply grate some nutmeg over the top and serve.