Mulled Wine Day

What the day is

Mulled Wine Day is observed on March 3, which is late for a winter drink but leaves time for one more pot before the weather turns.

Origin and background

The practice is Roman at least. A recipe for heavily spiced and honeyed wine appears in the collection attributed to Apicius, and the Romans carried the habit across Europe. Its persistence had a practical basis: before reliable winemaking and storage, a great deal of wine was thin, sour or actively turning, and heating it with honey and strong spices made it drinkable. Spices were also expensive, so a spiced wine was a display of means as well as a rescue operation.

Regional versions diverge considerably. German glühwein is the familiar market version, Nordic glögg is usually fortified and served with raisins and almonds in the glass, and the English tradition includes the smoking bishop, a port-based version that appears at the end of A Christmas Carol when Scrooge proposes discussing matters over a bowl of it.

The one technical rule worth knowing is temperature. Ethanol boils at about 78 degrees Celsius, well below water, so a pot allowed to simmer is actively driving off the alcohol, and the aromatic compounds from the spices are volatile too and leave with it. Mulled wine should be held somewhere around 70 degrees, hot enough to steam faintly and never to bubble. Boiled mulled wine is weaker, duller and slightly stewed.

Whole spices rather than ground is the other rule, since ground spice clouds the wine and leaves grit. A cheap but sound young red works best, as sugar softens tannin, and a genuinely good bottle is wasted.

How to take part

• Keep it below a simmer. Steam yes, bubbles no.
• Use whole spices and strain before serving.
• Add any fortified wine or spirit at the end, off the heat.
• Use a decent cheap red rather than a good bottle.
• Drink responsibly, and remember it warms the skin rather than the core.