Slow Cooker Mulled Red Wine Punch

Mulled wine is the one drink where cheap wine is the correct choice, not the compromise. Heat and spice flatten the subtleties you pay for in a good bottle, so the eight-dollar Garnaça or the store-brand Cabernet ends up in the same place as the twenty-dollar one. What matters is that the wine is dry and red with real tannin behind it. A sweet red turns cloying once the honey goes in.

The slow cooker does something a stovetop pot cannot: it holds the wine below a simmer for hours without anyone watching it. That threshold matters more than people expect. Wine that boils loses its alcohol fast and takes on a stewed, jammy edge. Wine held between 160°F and 180°F keeps its structure, and the spices keep giving. Set it on LOW, come back in two hours, then switch to WARM and forget about it while the party happens.

The brandy goes in at the end, off the heat, and that is deliberate. Anything you add during the long hold will partly cook off. Adding a half cup at the finish puts the backbone back in and gives the punch a second layer of flavor that the wine alone doesn’t have. If you keep one bottle of spirits for cooking, make it an inexpensive brandy. It also goes into pan sauces, fruit desserts and sangria.

Slow Cooker Mulled Red Wine Punch

Two bottles of inexpensive red wine, a splash of brandy, and whole spices held on WARM all evening — twelve mugs from a pot you never have to tend.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 2 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Course Drinks

Cuisine European

Servings 12 drinks

Ingredients

  

• 2 bottles dry red wine 750 ml each, inexpensive Cabernet, Merlot, or Garnacha
• 2 cups apple cider unfiltered if available
• 1/3 cup honey or packed brown sugar
• 1 orange sliced into thin rounds
• 2 strips orange peel about 3 inches each, white pith removed
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 8 whole cloves
• 3 star anise pods
• 1 slice fresh ginger about 1/4 inch thick
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup brandy
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice only if the punch tastes flat
• 12 orange half-moons for serving
• 12 cinnamon sticks for stirring

Instructions

 

• Pour both bottles of wine and the apple cider into a 6-quart slow cooker.
• Stir in the honey until it dissolves. Doing this while the liquid is still cold keeps it from sinking into a layer at the bottom.
• Add the orange rounds, orange peel strips, cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise, ginger, and salt.
• Cover and cook on LOW for 2 hours. Do not use HIGH — the wine will reach a simmer, drive off its alcohol, and take on a cooked, jammy flavor.
• Lift the lid at the 90-minute mark and taste. If the wine was on the tart side, add another tablespoon of honey.
• Remove the orange rounds after 2 hours. Left in longer, the pith turns the whole pot bitter. The peel strips, cinnamon, cloves, and star anise can stay.
• Turn the cooker to WARM and stir in the brandy off the boil. Taste once more and add the lemon juice only if the punch reads flat.
• Ladle into heatproof mugs and garnish each with an orange half-moon and a cinnamon stick.

Notes

Buy the wine by the case or look for the store’s own label. Two bottles at seven or eight dollars apiece serve twelve people — under a dollar fifty a mug, against ten or twelve for the same drink at a bar.

Whole spices from the bulk bin or the international aisle cost a fraction of what the small glass jars in the baking aisle do, and the quantity here would empty two of those jars.

Rinse and dry the cinnamon sticks and star anise after straining. They hold enough for a second batch.

A box of red wine works and is cheaper still. Use 6 1/2 cups, which is roughly two bottles’ worth.

Do not use a sweet red or a heavily oaked one. Sweet turns syrupy under honey, and oak turns bitter under heat.

Make it alcohol-free: replace both bottles of wine with 6 cups of cranberry juice plus 2 cups of strong brewed black tea, skip the brandy, and cut the honey to 2 tablespoons. The tea supplies the tannin that makes it taste like a grown-up drink rather than hot juice.

Leftovers keep for 3 days refrigerated. Reheat gently — never boil. Reduced by half in a saucepan, the leftovers become a glaze for pork or duck.

Serving note: two 750 ml bottles across 12 servings is about 4 ounces of wine per mug plus a splash of brandy — a little under a standard glass of wine.

Keyword big-batch cocktail, holiday drink, mulled wine, slow cooker