My family and I usually spent some time with my grandparents, at the countryside each winter. We’d help them around and at around lunch time, my Grandad used to make us mulled wine to keep us warm.
There’s a long lasting tradition in my family to make our own wine (it’s a lot of work though) so making mulled wine with homemade red wine is extra special for all of us.
I love that mulled wine is widely popular in Europe and each country has its very own version of it.
This mulled wine recipe has a “secret” ingredient in it that I didn’t find in any of the other recipes I researched. It also doesn’t have any brandy – we don’t like to spoil perfectly delicious homemade red wine.

What you’ll need to make mulled wine:
- 1 litre red wine – dry
- 5 tbs white sugar
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 6 cloves
- 10 black peppercorns
- 1 star anise (or 2 broken halves, like mine)
- one medium orange, sliced
Method:
1. In a small saucepan, pour the wine and let it warm up for 5 minutes or so.
2. Add the sugar – one tablespoon at a time. Careful, the wine will rise and get foamy when you add the sugar. So better remove it from the heat, add the sugar and bring it back.
3. After the sugar has melted, add all the spices and the orange slices.
4. Bring it to a boil (careful, it will rise again), gently mix it and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.

That’s it!
Additionally you can also add some apple chunks, but we usually don’t add any.
The anise is quite a new addition to our recipe and I have to say – it’s not my favourite spice. I added it to this mulled wine recipe because it blends perfectly with the rest of the spices. But the anise is the only spice I take out after 2-3 minutes – I boil the rest of them.
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This mulled wine is spicy, warm and full of Christmasy flavours. It’s one of my favourite winter drinks, since it reminds me of my childhood.
I really hope you give this mulled wine recipe a try and please let me know how it turned out for you!