10 Interesting Facts About Mulled Wine You Should Know

With Christmas just around the corner, it’s time to indulge in one of our favourite drinks of the season. We’re talking about none other than mulled wine of course. How one can miss the sweet, spicy and warm drink that comes wrapped with Christmas vibes!

Mulled wine has its own importance when it comes to Christmas and winter time. Of course, there are many beverages around the world, but none can beat the aroma, feel and taste that mulled wine has been carrying around for centuries. Keeping its importance in mind, we have curated a few interesting facts about mulled wine that you can show off next time you go drinking with your friends.

1. It’s been more than a few hundred years since mulled wine was invented but since inception, all of its ingredients have remained the same. When immigrants from European countries arrived in North America they bought mulled wine with them. Even after all these years, the staple ingredients for mulled wine have always been red wine and cinnamon sticks. These are widely used even to this day.
2. Patience is the key to good mulled wines! If you need to enjoy really a good mulled wine, you need to have a lot of patience since this is not an on-the-go drink. When you heat wine, you need to make sure not to burn off the wine. This requires slow heating and constant measuring on a thermometer. The danger of losing alcohol content begins at 75 degrees celsius.
3. Guess who invented the mulled wine? The Romans of course! Just like their colonies, they spread their recipes too, and we can’t thank them enough for it! The Romans decided to take wine a notch higher by adding spices to it and officially gave birth to mulled wine.

   

4. Mulled wine is a traditional beverage that has been on offer for the past few centuries. The oldest documented Glühwein (a type of mulled wine) mug is attributed to Count John IV of Katzenelnbogen, a German nobleman who was the first grower of Riesling grapes. This gold-plated lockable silver mug dates back to 1420.
5. Not just red wine, Glühwein has been made from white wine too. But sadly, it didn’t garner as much fame as the original red mulled wine.
6. One good recipe, different names to go by! Depending on the country of origin and the spices added to it, mulled wine may go by different names such as Glogg (Sweden), Vin Chaud (France), or Glühwein (Germany). Also, Candola in southern Chile and Foralt bor (‘boiled wine’) in Hungary, to Bisschopswijn (‘bishop’s wine’) in the Netherlands and Caribou in Canada’s Quebec province, where it’s mixed with maple syrup and spirits.
7. Glühwein, which roughly translates to “glow-wine” (from the hot irons once used for mulling) is popular in German-speaking countries and in the Alsace region of France.

   

8. Want to preserve your wine for a longer duration? Mulled wine will stand the test of time. Add the spices you require and they will act as preservatives and keep the brew fresh.
9. Sometimes, rum or other kind of alcohol is also added to mulled wine. In that case, mulled wine is called Schuss (with a shot)!
10. If you earnestly want to try mulled wine this season, then do so. Because research has proven that it is actually a memory-booster. Red wine being a natural source of resveratrol helps to protect the brain from harmful proteins that can prove fatal to brain tissues.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

After reading these interesting facts about mulled wine, we couldn’t just let you go without an importance announcement. We’re hosting our first-ever event at The Table in Mumbai on December 21, 2019 where editor Priyanko Sarkar will talk more about Mulled Wines while The Table’s Head Sommelier Pratik Angre demonstrates three different types of mulled wine for you to taste.

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Participants will also get a chance to prepare their own version of mulled wine with a choice of spices on offer. If you’re as excited as we are about the event (and you should be!) then book yourself a seat here.