Vin Brûlée (Mulled Wine) | BLOGMAS DAY 8

It’s quickly beginning to turn more wintery here in the Cotswolds. This morning there was a hard frost here in Cheltenham and on our trip to Stow-on-the-Wold there was snow covering large parts of the ground! It would be magical if we could have a white Christmas this year! On cold, snowy evenings, the perfect comfort drink is a glass of fruit-infused mulled wine. It’s also a clear sign that Christmas will soon be upon us and more mulled wine is expected.

In Italy, especially in the Piemonte region, mulled wine is called ‘vin brûlée’ – quite literally, ‘burnt wine’. Of course, we don’t burn our wine, and nor do we boil it.

It is traditional in my husband’s Mum’s village in the Piemonte region to serve mulled wine after midnight mass. The wine is served out of a massive vat and is usually made by volunteers from the village. The locals gather to chat about their Christmas so far, with their mulled wine in hand, along with a slice of panettone. It’s such a festive and joyous time; everyone is so happy and merry – I’m sure the mulled wine helps!

The following recipe is from the Eataly website. Eataly is an Italian marketplace in New York with delis, restaurants and cooking courses. On the top of the Flatiron building there was a pop-up, alpine-insired restaurant called Baita, and this is the mulled wine they served. I halved the recipe, which serves around 4 half-full wine glasses.

Ingredients

375ml Barbera red wine (or something not high in tannins)

Half an orange

Half a lemon

1 star anise

1 stick of cinnamon

1 clove

1 cardamon pod

1/2 cup of sugar (125g)

3 ounces of brandy (use Vecchia Romagna brandy for true authenticity)

Method

1. Cut the peel off half an orange and lemon so it’s down to the white, inner peel.

2. In a large pot combine all the ingredients apart from the brandy. Heat on a medium heat and before it reaches boiling point, take off the heat. Leave aside with the lid on to infuse for 20 minutes.