French Mulled Wine (Vin Chaud)
Red wine gently warmed with cinnamon, cloves, star anise and orange, just sweet enough to make it feel like a treat. This is the cozy, fragrant drink that fills French Christmas markets with steam and spice.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Prep the orange
With a vegetable peeler, remove the zest from half the orange in wide strips, avoiding the white pith underneath (it turns bitter if it ends up in the wine). Squeeze the juice from that same half, then thinly slice the other half into rounds for garnish.
- 1 orange
✅ Done when: you have orange zest strips, juice, and a few orange slices ready
Warm the wine
Pour the wine into a heavy pot and add the orange zest, juice, cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise and sugar. Warm over medium-low heat, stirring now and then to dissolve the sugar, until the wine is steaming — do not let it boil, since boiling cooks off the alcohol and can leave the wine tasting flat and slightly bitter. If you have a thermometer, aim for about 70–80°C (160–175°F), just below a simmer.
- 750 ml red wine
- orange zest and juice (from step 1)
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 6 whole cloves
- 2 star anise
- 60 g sugar or honey
✅ Done when: the wine is hot and steaming, sugar fully dissolved, with no bubbles breaking the surface
Let it infuse
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Strain and reheat
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Finish and serve
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Prep the orange
With a vegetable peeler, remove the zest from half the orange in wide strips, avoiding the white pith underneath (it turns bitter if it ends up in the wine). Squeeze the juice from that same half, then thinly slice the other half into rounds for garnish.
- 1 orange
✅ Done when: you have orange zest strips, juice, and a few orange slices ready
Warm the wine
Pour the wine into a heavy pot and add the orange zest, juice, cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise and sugar. Warm over medium-low heat, stirring now and then to dissolve the sugar, until the wine is steaming — do not let it boil, since boiling cooks off the alcohol and can leave the wine tasting flat and slightly bitter. If you have a thermometer, aim for about 70–80°C (160–175°F), just below a simmer.
- 750 ml red wine
- orange zest and juice (from step 1)
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 6 whole cloves
- 2 star anise
- 60 g sugar or honey
✅ Done when: the wine is hot and steaming, sugar fully dissolved, with no bubbles breaking the surface
Let it infuse
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Strain and reheat
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Finish and serve
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The Story Behind the Dish
Long before France existed, the Romans drank conditum paradoxum, a honeyed, spiced wine warmed to fight off cold evenings. That old habit of warming and spicing wine took deep root in Alsace, where French and German influence shaped some of Europe's oldest Christmas markets, and mulled wine became a seasonal ritual there.
Today vin chaud simmers in big pots at outdoor stalls from late November through December, ladled into mugs for anyone braving the cold to shop for gifts, roasted chestnuts and gingerbread.
⭐ Why It's Famous
It's as much the smell as the taste — cinnamon, cloves and orange rising in steam over snowy market stalls — that makes vin chaud the scent of French winter.
💡 Fun Fact
Alsace's Christmas markets, especially the one in Strasbourg, are among the oldest in Europe, and vin chaud has been warming visitors there for generations.
Alsace, France
48.57°N, 7.75°E
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