Mulled wine, the alcoholic hot drink that gives Christmas its spice. In the pre-Christmas season, the supermarket shelves are full of the dark bottles, and once the Christmas markets open at the latest, the alcohol-fueled Christmas mood ramps up in many places. What makes good mulled wine, where does it actually come from, and how do you quickly make it yourself with a simple recipe? We have the answer to everything. Cheers!
Origin and tradition of mulled wine
Did you know that the ancient Romans of antiquity already drank mulled wine? Or rather the precursor of what we pour down our throats at Christmas markets today. The Roman spiced wine, Conditum Paradoxum, is very similar to today's traditional Christmas drink: honey was boiled down with wine and then seasoned with all sorts of spices: pepper, saffron, bay leaves, the resin of the mastic pistachio tree, as well as dates and roasted date pits. The recipe comes from the oldest cookbook of Roman antiquity, 'De re coquinaria' by the Roman gourmet Caelius Apicius.
A mulled-wine recipe by the Saxon historian August Josef Ludwig von Wackerbarth from 1843 comes much closer to today's recipe: red wine, cinnamon, ginger, anise, pomegranate, nutmeg, cardamom, and saffron, plus a sweetener, either honey or sugar. It took a while, though, before mulled wine became commercial: in the winter of 1956, the Kunzmann company bottled mulled wine in ready-to-sell bottles for the first time. More precisely, it was Rudolf Kunzmann in his Augsburg wine cellar, which he still ran on his own back then. The family business still exists, today run by his son Jürgen in Dasing. His father is to thank for the Augsburg Christkindlmarkt mulled wine known throughout Germany and, of course, thereby also for the spread of the alcoholic hot drink across all of Germany and the world.
The best wine for mulled wine - should it be red?
Red wine is famously the base for mulled wine. In Germany, at least. But here in Franconia there's often the white-wine alternative, too. Likewise, in Austria it's completely normal to make mulled wine from both red and white wine. For children, fruit juice like apple juice usually serves as the base - after all, children's mulled wine is just as much a part of the Christmas markets as the alcoholic kind. In the end, it's a matter of personal preference. But which wine is best suited for mixing with all kinds of spices? For red wine, wine connoisseurs recommend above all wines with little acidity and a low tannin content. Below is a selection of various wines of both varieties. Of course it also tastes good with other kinds of wine.
- Red wine as a base
- Dornfelder
- Merlot
- Spätburgunder
- Pinot Noir
- White wine as a base
- Chardonnay
- Müller-Thurgau
- Riesling
- Silvaner
Which spices belong in classic mulled wine?
A tasty, classic mulled wine comes together with just a few ingredients: cinnamon sticks, lemon peel, star anise, and cloves. To taste, however, many more spices can be added, entirely according to preference. The following ingredients are found, in part, in many homemade and industrial mulled wines. For sweetening, honey and sugar, or alternatively agave syrup, are often used. Anyone who wants to top it all off uses so-called botanicals, which are often used in cocktails. That is, blossoms and herbs like rosemary or rose petals to give the wine a floral note.
- Vanilla pods
- Lemon peel
- Orange
- Cinnamon
- Cloves
- Pepper
- Ginger
- Nutmeg
- Coriander
- Star anise
- Pink peppercorns
- Allspice
- Juniper berries
- Bay leaves
- Fennel seeds
Why does mulled wine get you drunk so fast?
Some consider it a rumor, while others explain the faux pas at the Christmas party with the fact that mulled wine gets you drunk faster. But is that true? Actually, it is. At least when the mulled wine is drunk the usual way: hot. The body absorbs warm drinks better and faster than cold ones. For one, the alcohol thus enters the bloodstream faster through the mouth and stomach lining as well as through the stomach and intestines - you feel drunk sooner.
On top of that, depending on the amount, the spices also contribute to not necessarily feeling better. By the next day at the latest, in the worst case, a hangover sets in that's stronger than after a night marked by vodka in moderation. The culprits are the many additives like sugar, aldehydes, and fusel oil. These deprive the brain of oxygen and thus cause the typical symptoms of a hangover: headache, fatigue, and often nausea, too. So: don't overdo it with the mulled wine, and don't drink it too fast!
