With Christmas just around the corner, I thought I should share a quintessential Italian Christmas recipe: Vin Brule – aka Italian mulled wine. When living in Italy, Christmas used to be my favourite time of the year. I loved the cold, snowy winters and dark evenings. It all contributed to the cozy Christmas atmosphere that all my readers from the Northern Hemisphere know very well. Christmas down-under is in the middle of the hot Aussie summer, so no eggnog, fireplace, snow and… mulled wine. Yet, this year I made a small batch for old time’s sake and the smell immediately took me back to a Christmas market in the Alps. We also drink Vin Brule when we go skiing. In Italy, many people take a week off in winter to go to the Alps to ski. We call this break “settimana bianca” (literally “white week”), as we spend it on the snow. Mulled wine is not just an Italian thing, in fact you can find it in many countries, but this is the way we make it in Italy. Cheers!
Vin Brule
Ingredients
- 1.5 lt. – 6 1/3 cups red wine
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 250 gms – 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 10 cloves
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- Zest of 2 oranges
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 apple thinly sliced (with the skin on)
Instructions
Recipe Notes
Vin Brule has to be served hot.
Italy at Christmas sounds so magical. This looks so comforting and wintry. I find the heat in Australia tends to take some of the magic away from Christmas but maybe a glass of this might make it better haha. Love your blog x
Do you have a suggestion on the type of red wine type to use?
Hi Dena! In Italy, we use local wines… so it varies depending on the regions. However, a Pinot Noir or a Cabernet Sauvignon would work great. 🙂