Mulled White Wine
A recipe for mulled white wine that can easily be made vegan-friendly. ‘Tis Vegan Month after all.
Dare I admit that I made this with some bottles I wanted to use up? I discovered a bottle of white wine hiding in the fridge door yesterday. You know how wine does that, don’t you? It was a cheap bottle to begin with and I like to make mulled wine with cheap wine only. To use a bottle of good wine in sangria or mulled wine is a waste of a good bottle. Well, that’s my opinion anyhow.
But that is possibly because … I’m terrible at making cocktails. I mean. Terrible. I don’t know what happens. After making terrible drinks years ago I really tried hard to follow recipes exactly. And I did follow them exactly. I’m actually certain I didn’t go adding crazy stuff – not at that point anyhow. But they always tasted awful.
Even the most simple things. Like blending strawberries and sugar and mixing in some sparkling wine. Foolproof right? Not when I’m making it. I have no idea why. They just taste … wrong.
There are only a very small number of drinks I can’t mess up. Actually one is for bad sparkling wine. If you get a bottle of sparkling wine and it’s not great add a teaspoon of Grand Marnier into each glass and a cherry. It will taste good then. That one is foolproof. Don’t do it with good sparking wine though.
The other drink I can’t mess up is a Whiskey Mac. It’s made with two parts ginger wine and one part whiskey. It’s like a really nice, warming sherry.
Oh and now there’s this one, white mulled wine. This is really good. I’m shocked to say it but it is.
What’s in it? Exactly?
Well there’s the white wine. And I had a bottle of what I think is Pear Vodka, that I wanted to use up. It’s nice. I’m just not sure how long I’ve had it. Wyborowa Gruszka. It’s a Polish drink and I’m guessing its base is vodka but I’m not 100% sure. If it is then this recipe is vegan. Once you make sure the wine is vegan.
When I decided to make mulled white wine I knew I was going to mix some sweet cider into the wine. I was half considering adding in some brandy but I thought it might be too strong and it could overpower the light sweetness of the wine and cider. Then when I was looking at what I had I saw the bottle of pear vodka.
I tasted a little of the wine, cider and pear vodka, mixed together. It was fine if a little too sweet and … lacking any kind of kick really. So I wondered about adding straight vodka into the mix. I did a quick search to see if that’s a thing. And that lead me to this interesting recipe for Swedish mulled wine. It does use vodka. But only after infusing with spices and things for at least a couple of days. And I had to post a recipe tonight…
But I decided to add some in. And also added in some ginger syrup which I came across in the shop a couple of days ago. I also wetted the top of the glasses with lime juice and covered them in a mix of caster sugar and ground cinnamon. I did it just for the photos. But this is actually the most important step of the recipe. It’s so yummy. Tangy and sweet and complements the drink perfectly.
Oh and I’ve doubled the quanties for the recipe. I only made four glasses.
Ingredients
- 1 litre white wine
- 1 litre sweet cider
- 300 ml pear vodka or liqueur
- 150 ml vodka
- 1 lime, sliced
- 2 sweet crisp apples, cored and sliced
- 6 - 8 cinnamon sticks
- 2.5 inch ginger root, sliced
- 3 generous tablespoons ginger syrup or maple syrup
- ground cinnamon
- caster sugar
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients, except the ground cinnamon, caster sugar and top and tail slices of the lime, in to a large deep saucepan. Heat gently until the mixture is hot but not boiling - should take 10 - 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let the mix cool to warm.
- Using the top and tail slices of the lime wet the top the glasses. On a plate sprinkle some sugar and ground cinnamon together. Roll the glasses in this sugar-cinnamon mix.
- Ladle the mulled wine into the glasses through a small strainer. Add a few slices of apple and cinnamon stick to each glass.
Hope you like it!