Great British Chefs serve up the best mulled-wine recipes

Essential for bonfires, Guy Fawkes, Halloween and Christmas, mulled wine is the perfect way to brighten those dark evenings. Here are a few tempting tipples to try at home

Mulled cider

Mulled wine is pretty much a staple drink over winter in our house, but this year I thought I would shake things up a bit and branch out into mulled cider, just to see what all the fuss was about. I’ve sampled various sickly sweet mulled ciders at pubs over the years but they had all paled into insignificance next to mulled wine due to the cheap cider and high sugar content. So I mulled it over, tried a few combinations and this was my favourite. The most important thing is not to let it boil as this will burn off the alcohol.

1l scrumpy cider, medium-dry
60g of Demerara sugar
1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
5 cloves
1 star anise
fresh ginger, 3cm piece
1 clementine, zest and juice

Add the sugar, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, star anise and clementine zest to a pan with 100ml of the cider. Bring to the boil and cook to a syrup. Turn the heat down and add the rest of the cider and the clementine juice. Bring to a very gentle simmer. After 10 minutes pass the cider through a fine sieve and divide between warmed mugs or glasses.

This Mulled Cider Recipe by Sally Abé first appeared on Great British Chefs. Visit for more Cider Recipes

This fabulous mulled wine Bellini recipe,served at The Gilbert Scott, distills the essence of the warming Christmas beverage to produce a sophisticated cocktail. The mulled wine reduction will keep for up to a month and will make 40-50 of these cocktails, so whip up a batch early on and use it throughout the festive period.

For the mulled wine reduction

3 cinnamon sticks
2 2/3 handfuls of cloves
15 black peppercorns
20 star anise
1 pinch of mace nutmeg, grated
1 orange, juiced and peeled in strips
2l red wine
500g of caster sugar

To build the cocktail

100ml of sparkling wine, preferably Nyetimber Classic Cuvee
lemon juice to taste, 5-10ml

To prepare the mulled wine reduction, add all of the ingredients to a saucepan, apart from the sugar. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add the sugar, stir to combine and continue to simmer until the liquid has reduced by half. Set aside and allow to cool. Strain and allow the mixture to cool before transferring to a clean, sterilised bottle. This reduction will keep for up to 1 month. To assemble the cocktail, add the sparkling wine to a champagne flute. Pour in 25ml of the mulled wine reduction, then stir in the lemon juice to taste and serve

This Mulled Wine Bellini Recipe by Marcus Wareing first appeared on Great British Chefs. Visit more for Red Wine Recipes

Mulled wine

Essential for bonfires, Guy Fawkes, Halloween and Christmas, mulled wine is a great way to brighten the dark evenings of autumn and winter. Adam Gray's recipe includes the expected festive spices and orange zest, but cleverly adds a dash of sweet peach schnapps.

750ml of red wine
250ml of orange juice
100ml of water
50ml of peach schnapps
1/2 orange, pare the zest
5g of star anise
3g of cloves
1g of juniper berries
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of fresh thyme
1 cinnamon stick
1 cardamom pod

For the mulled wine, combine the red wine, orange juice, peach schnapps and water in a saucepan. Add the bay leaf, cardamom pod, cinnamon stick, cloves, orange zest, juniper berries, thyme and star anise and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 15-20 minutes. Carefully pass the mulled wine through a fine sieve and into a jug. It is now ready to serve.

This Adam’s Mulled Wine Recipe by Adam Gray first appeared on Great British Chefs. Visit more for Juniper Berry Recipes