love

Oh spiced wine.

I love red wine, but add in some mulling spices and some liquor and I just melt into a cozy puddle of happy. I get pretty sappy about spiced wine, for me its more than just a festive drink and I’m excited to share this special recipe with you all. 

My First Spiced Wine in Italy

I first had spiced wine in Italy right outside of Rome in an Italian home, next to a vineyard on Thanksgiving. I know. Doesn’t it sound magical already? My Italian friend, Alessandro, and I cooked Thanksgiving for some of our friends and his family. We cooked the works: a turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, potatoes and gravy. I also made my Grandma Letty’s cranberry cream cheese port jello. This was my first time cooking Thanksgiving without my parents and I remember feeling so proud of myself.

As we sat down for dinner, Alessandro poured some wine into a small pot with a small candle under it. He added some cinnamon sticks and cherry flavored honey. It simmered while we ate.

Dinner was finished, dessert was served and spiced wine was poured. I sat in this Italian home, sipping my spiced wine, eating pie and soaking it all in. Some people were speaking Italian, some English, but yet everyone was speaking the same language…Love. There was community amongst strangers and language barriers, it was beautiful. I had many memorable times in Italy, but this was one of the most meaningful.

My First Time Making Spiced Wine

Fast forward a few years… I was in nursing school, it was Friday and I was housesitting that weekend for a couple that I regularly babysat for. 

My closest girlfriends and I always planned a big dinner together anytime I housesat at this particular house. But on this particular fall night, I reminisced about the spiced wine that I had drank in Italy many moons ago and decided I wanted to try my hand at making this delicious elixir. 

It was perfect and became our girls night housesit tradition.  Yummy food, spiced wine and the best talks. Ever since those nursing school days, spiced wine has held a special place in my heart.

To me it signifies friendship, togetherness and love. 

The Recipe

Ingredients

Makes 4-6 glasses 

• 1 bottle red wine
• 3 cups apple juice (fresh pressed preferred)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste, extract or 1 vanilla bean split
• 4-5 cinnamon sticks
• 5-6 star anise (plus extras for garnishing)
• 1 tsp cloves
• 1 large citrus fruit or 3 smaller ones
• 1/4 bourbon, whiskey or scotch (plus more for individual glass 🙂 )

Instructions

1. Add juice, honey, vanilla and spices to large pot and simmer for 10 minutes
2. Add wine and simmer for 20-30 minutes 
3. Add citrus and simmer for 5-10 minutes
4. Add liquor, mix and serve into glasses
5. Garnish with citrus from pot and fresh star anise
6. Enjoy! I turn the heat down low so it just stays warm at this point and does not simmer

     *See additional notes and recommendations below

A Few Things to Note When Making Spiced Wine

Making Spiced Wine is an Art Not a Science

It’s hard to mess up spiced wine if you’ve got the basics. This is my perfected recipe to make the most yummy spiced, but don’t fret if you don’t have the exact quantity of ingredients or if you’re missing honey or vanilla. 

Don’t Use Your Fancy Red Wine

Seriously, do not use an expensive wine here. It will be wasted. This wine is all about the ingredients you put into it and the actual red wine is less important. I picked this bottle because it was affordable and I thought the cherub looked cute. 

Choosing an Apple Juice

I prefer to use fresh pressed apple juice if I can get some. You can find it at most natural type grocery stores. Don’t buy anything spiced, because you are going to add your own spices. Most people think that fresh pressed cider has the spices in it, but its just apple juice made from cider apples. If your unsure if its spiced or not just check the ingredients to make sure its just apples. You can use regular apple juice too, but it has added sugar so I would forgo the honey.

Spice-y + Boozy

I love my spiced wine to have plenty of spice-y notes so I use a combination of three spices (cinnamon, cloves, anise), but you can use other spices like ginger, nutmeg, cardamom and allspice. Honestly, I’ve been meaning to throw a couple cardamom pods into mine, but I keep forgetting to buy them.

I also like it to be pretty boozy. I like to simmer my spices in the apple juice for 10 minutes before adding the wine to allow the spices to warm up and start diffusing into the juice. This means less time you have to simmer the wine for it to become infused with the spices and less time for the alcohol to burn off. Also, I add the liquor at the very end for the same reason. 

Choosing Your Citrus

Any citrus will work, even limes, lemon and grapefruit, but I personally like to stick to orange colored citrus. I usually prefer to have at least one small citrus like a clementine or tangerine because they fit nicely into a glass for garnishing.

Spiced Wine Tastes Best When….

It always tastes delicious, but it’s even better on cold crisp days, when had with dessert (my fav is cobbler), while spending time with your nearest and dearest and on holidays.

You Can Save It

It will keep for a few days in the fridge. Just discard the citrus so that it doesn’t become bitter. 

Glassware

Since this is served hot I think it is best served in mugs. I love these clear glass mugs so that you can see that pretty ruby color and the garnishes.

Drink + Be Merry

Well, I hope you enjoyed this very long post about wine, but even more I hope you make spiced wine this season and think of me while you get love drunk on its yumminess. I hope you have the best conversations with whoever you call your people. Spiced wine is really just an excuse to have a slow night and connect more deeply with those you love. 

So cheers to spiced wine, traditions, community, love and the people in my life who make spiced wine more than just a yummy seasonal drink,

clear glass mugs | copper ladle | vanilla bean paste 

star anise | cinnamon sticks | cloves