I love the fall and one of the things I love best about fall is a warm glass of mulled wine. Mulling wine is easy and a fun treat for any fall festivities. We usually make mulled wine on Thanksgiving or for Fall parties. This year we mulled some wine for the wet rainy walk on Halloween night trick or treating with our boys. I think we may have started a new tradition.

Making mulled wine is easy. For each bottle of wine you mull you will need
1 large cinnamon stick
6-8 whole cloves
4-5 whole peppercorns
1 orange peel
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of vodka

The measurements can be adjusted to suit your taste. This is just a guideline that I go by. You start mulling by pouring your wine in a pot adding the spices and turning the burner on high. When your wine starts to simmer turn it down to a medium heat add your sugar. Let the wine simmer in the pot for 5-10 minutes. Turn off the heat and then add the vodka. Alcohol evaporates when it’s heated which is why we add the vodka at the end the vodka adds back in some of the alcohol that has evaporated from the wine. The more of a kick you want your mulled wine to have the more vodka you should add. If you want it a little sweeter or less sweet you can adjust the sugar to suit your taste.

I would recommend choosing a less expensive bottle of wine since mulling it changes it’s flavor anyway. I find the best mulling wines are ones that are a little on the sweet side already and that you already enjoy the flavor of. Traditionally mulled wines are usually red though I find a nice Catawba wine is really delicious mulled as well. This Halloween we used Bully Hills Banty Red to mull. So delicious and helped us keep warm on our wet walk through the neighborhood.