Mulled Wine Experiment 1

Last weekend I made some mulled wine. The ensuing discussion on Google+ about mulled wine and glühwein prompted me to read up a bit more about it and I found this rather good article about this festive drink.

I realised that my "stick everything in the pan and boil it up" method was pretty unsophisticated so I've decided to refine my technique a little. I have gone for the method credited to Jamie Oliver where the spices are first infused into a syrup which is then added to the wine and warmed through since overheating the wine and leaving it to boil impairs that flavour of the wine and burns off a large proportion of the alcohol.

Mulled Wine

Ingredients:
1 x bottle of red wine
Juice & zest of 2 oranges
Juice & zest of 1 lemon
1 x stick cinnamon
10 x cloves
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
100g sugar

Method
In a small saucepan, add the sugar, juice and zest of the lemons and oranges and all the spices.
Mix to dissolve the sugar and then bring slowly to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally.
Simmer very gently for about 10 minutes, you should have a nice syrup infused with spices.
At this point, you can leave the syrup until you need it, or use it straight away.
Using a larger pan, add the wine and mix in the syrup.
Heat through.
Before serving, strain through a sieve.

I did notice a difference using this method - the mulled wine was less "harsh", the spices were more subtle and the wine retained some of it's subtleties.

Not that I'm fussy...I'd still drink cheap, sugary and overspiced plonk from a plastic cup if it was offered to me on a cold day :-)