Glühwein – Mulled Wine

Ingredients

• 300 ml Cassis juice (blackcurrant)
• 700 ml Red wine (Primitivo or Zinfandel)
• 50 g Sugar
• 25 g Raisins
• 1 Orange
• 1 Cinnamon bark
• 1 spoon Ginger powder
• 1 spoon Cloves
• 5 Star anise

Method

Glühwein depends on spice-blooming to release the volatile oils from your aromatics without cooking off the alcohol. The key is patience: you're building an infusion where heat matters, but not heat that boils.

Pour the red wine and cassis juice into a heavy-based pot. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve — you're aiming for a liqueur-like sweetness that won't intensify as the liquid concentrates slightly. Crack the cinnamon bark into three or four pieces; this exposes more surface area than leaving it whole. Toast the cloves and star anise in a dry pan for 90 seconds until fragrant — this wakes the cinnamaldehyde and eugenol that make these spices sing. Add these to the pot along with the ginger powder and raisins. Halve the orange and cut one half into thin wheels for serving; squeeze the juice from the other half directly into the pot. This citrus acid brightens the wine's tannins and keeps the drink from cloying.

Set the heat to medium-low. You're aiming for a gentle shimmer at the surface — occasional bubbles breaking through, never a rolling boil. If alcohol boils aggressively, it evaporates and you lose the warming quality the wine provides. A thermometer reading 70–75°C is your target; this is hot enough to extract colour and flavour from the spices without stripping the drink of its character. Let it sit at this temperature for 12–15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The liquid will deepen from purple-red towards burgundy as the spices release their compounds into the wine and the cassis juice spreads throughout.

Taste as you go. Once the cloves and cinnamon dominate the nose and the fruit sits beneath them — not competing — you're there. Don't overextend; prolonged heating dulls the spices into a one-note warmth. Strain through fine mesh into a serving pot, pressing the raisins gently to extract their sweetness. Float an orange wheel in each cup. Serve immediately at around 65°C; once it drops below 55°C, the aromatic oils begin to flatten and the drink becomes merely warm juice.