I am not one to pass up the opportunity to drink wine.
And, though this recipe is for a spiced wine meant to be drunk at Imbolc, which is the holiday when Witches celebrate the first whispers of spring, I was certainly not going to not drink it just because the holiday had technically passed before I had a chance to make it.
That being said, I had fairly low expectations. I have never, with any particular success, mulled my own wine… but there’s a first time for everything, right?
The recipe was quite different from any I had tried before, but simple enough:
1c water 1c brown sugar 2c pineapple juice 1c orange juice 6 whole cloves 3 whole allspice berries 2 cinnamon sticks ½ tsp salt Put in the crock pot on “high” for about two hours, stirring once or twice. Turn the crock pot to “low” and give it a couple stirs. Leave the lid off and let it sit for a few minutes to come below a boil. Or not, if you want to flash off the alcohol in the wine. Add a bottle of red wine. Heat on low until warmed through.
The first question was what wine to use… It had to be decent, but non-obtrusive, and something that wouldn’t clash with pineapple. Oh, and not too expensive, since I was fairly certain that the whole thing was bound to flop. It seemed like a very tall order, but luckily the people at my favorite wine store were able to help me out and we decided on a nice Pinot Noir.
And the result was really, really good.
Maybe a little sweeter than I would have liked, and I think I will add more spices next time, but it had a surprisingly pleasant pineapple taste that was just the thing to add a little sunshine to a cold and snowy evening.
Certainly not local, and hardly something that would fall under the heading of Good For You, it was a perfect treat to have with some popcorn, sitting in front of the fire, after a long tromp through the snowy woods.
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