Which wine for spiced wine?

npsmama

Which wine do you frugal folk use for spiced/mulled wine?

Penelope_Penguin

I like Cabernet Sauvignon. There are some decent, economical Bulgarian ones about

Penny. x

Pitlanepiglet

Whatever is cheap! We bought a 15 litre box in Calais last year, it was a merlot I think, the very nice Frenchman described it as "rustic"! By the time you've added some spices and heated it anything will be fine. We add a carton of orange juice to ours as well to take some of the potency out of it!

Seakay

Anything at all - you'll be adding spices, fruit and maybe sugar so the cheaper the better! You can mull white wine as well as red, and you can mull red or white grape juice for the drivers - don't add sugar to grape juice but other ingredients as usual.
Don't bring wine or juice to the boil, just warm up and try and keep below a simmer.

Butterfly_Brain

I use a cheap red from Asda it works fine

competitionscafe

While I agree that you should use something cheap I think it should at least be something you would drink as it is (I use the same principle when using wine for cooking) - so rather than disguising a poor wine with sugar and spices you are enhancing a drinkable one with sugar and spices. Easier to make something which tastes good when you start with good ingredients and I don't like very sweet mulled wine - you can use less sugar with a better wine. I use something quite soft and fruity - my favourite for making mulled wine is the Vineyard X Granacha from Wine Rack/Threshers which is £2.99 with the current 40% off voucher or just over £3 on the 3 for 2 offer (if you buy 3). Otherwise there is the Gran Tesoro (another Spanish Garnacha (aka grenache) at Tesco for about £3.20 or Tesco 2006 Sicilian Red also around £3.

Pennylane

We love the ready to go Lidl Mulled wine - it is VERY inexpensive and we've been buying it for years. There was plenty there this morning. Has carol singers on the bottle!:j Saves a lot of messing about and have only ever had favourable comments from people. We serve it hot with sliced oranges floating on top in a big bowl and it looks scrummy too.

I also use a variety of Lidl fruit juices to make a non-alcoholic punch with sliced oranged/lemon etc and that's always really popular.

naturally_2

When I did mulled wine for bonfire night I picked 2 bottles of a reasonable sounding merlot in bargain booze (2 for £8). It got quaffed by all no complaints!

I agree you should buy something that is drinkable without cooking and then enhace it. Apparently M&S Italian red is a very reasonable price (sorry I don't know exacts) and I've tasted it and can confirm it is nice!

How do you spice/mull it? Mine was a sachet of ready prepared mulled wine spice, a conamon stick, and a glug of smartprice oragne juide, with a smaller glug of cheapo brandy. So

competitionscafe

naturally wrote: »

How do you spice/mull it?

I use:

Allspice Berries, Cinnamon Stick, Cloves, Fresh Orange Wedges, 50g sugar - add everything to 100ml of water in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stir well to dissolve the sugar.
Leave to infuse for 30 minutes.
Add bottle of red wine and slug of brandy (optional).
Heat until very hot but do not allow to boil. (Can be left to infuse further and reheated)
Your house will smell lovely now.
Strain through sieve and enjoy.
Don't forget to squeeze the orange slice into the mulled wine - or eat them.

You can add more sugar to taste but I don't like it very sweet (I find the readymade bottles of mulled wines too sweet).

If you want a readymade version of mulling spices, Seasoned Pioneers do a good one, but if you are making more than 1 or 2 bottles worth it's much cheaper to buy the spice ingredients (Allspice Berries, Cinnamon Stick, Cloves) from a wholefood /health store. Other optional ingredients you can add: a bay leaf, nutmeg, star anise.

suzywoozy_3

We do mulled cider instead, it works out cheaper and we prefer it.

Rikki

suzywoozy wrote: »

We do mulled cider instead, it works out cheaper and we prefer it.

Interesting. How do you do this?