This festively-spiced mulled wine sangria is Christmas in a glass! With wintery flavors of citrus, blackberry, pomegranate, apple cider and cinnamon, it’s an inventive twist on a Spanish cocktail party favorite.
I love sangria for parties! Whether sitting by the pool or the fireplace, it’s always my go-to when I don’t want to be shaking up drinks in the kitchen, and simply have a beautiful, pre-made cocktail in my hand while I chat with friends.
For Summer, I love this tropical watermelon sangria, and for parties where I want to enchant guests with color, I serve this honeydew & cucumber white sangria. There’s truly nothing like the color of fresh honeydew juice. It looks like the tastiest cocktail in Emerald city! But for Christmas, I love the deep reds of this sangria, with snowy baby’s breath accents.
This cocktail is so simple, elegant and affordable for a big party or a special, cozy night for two by the Christmas tree. It also doesn’t require an over-night soak to be perfectly fruit-sweetened! Just 3 hours, and your gorgeous sangria is ready to make its debut!
A Few Tips
1. Save some un-drunken fruit for garnish
The fruit you add to the wine while it’s cooling in the fridge will be stained by the wine, which is totally fine, but to make a prettier, more colorful garnish, set some fresh fruit aside and add it to the drunken-fruit in the glasses when ready to serve.
If adding green apple to your garnish, make sure to add some lemon juice to a bowl and swish the cut apples around to prevent them from browning.
2. Make floral, herbal garnishes too!
The fresh fruit will look beautiful, but if you really want to turn up the “gorgeous” factor of your garnish, make tiny bunches of thyme and flowers. I used baby’s breath and waxflower (two non-toxic flowers).
If you can’t find organic flowers, just be sure to wash them by soaking them in water for at least 10 minutes and rinsing them when removed to eliminate as much pesticide as possible. Flowers are generally treated with the same pesticide as vegetables, but much, much more, so you really want to be sure they’re thoroughly washed.
Common Questions
Red wine sangrias are commonly made with Rioja, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon or Pino Noir, and you don’t need to splurge on a fancy wine to get a wonderfully tasting sangria.
It will be so flavored by the spices, fruits, brandy and juice that any subtle or complex notes of a fine wine will be lost, so don’t feel obligated to use a fancy bottle that you’ve been saving for a special occasion.
This sangria will be perfect after 3 hours, but you can allow it to sit over night. You don’t want it to sit in the refrigerator for more than 12 hours, however, or flavors of cinnamon may become too strong, and the fruit may become mushy.
• Cutting board and sharp knife
• Large pot with a lid
• Container to cool the sangria in your refrigerator
• Tea egg for cloves – or small amount of cheese cloth and baker’s string
Help Yourself to More Festive Cocktail Inspiration!
- A Sparkling Spiced Hibiscus Christmas Cocktail
- A Sparkling Spiced Hibiscus Christmas Cocktail
- The Godiva Chocolate Candy Cane Cocktail
- A RumChata Coconut Snowflake Cocktail
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Mulled Wine Christmas Sangria
Equipment
- cutting board and sharp knife
- pot with a lid – big enough for a bottle of wine and your fruits
- container – to cool the sangria in your refrigerator
- tea egg for cloves – or small amount of cheese cloth and baker’s string
Ingredients
- 1 bottle red wine – Rioja, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon or Pino Noir
- ¼ cup brandy
- 1 cup apple cider
- 2 green apples – 1 for mulled wine, 1 for fresh garnish
- 2 lemons – 1 for mulled wine, 1 for fresh garnish
- 2 limes – 1 for mulled wine, 1 for fresh garnish
- 1 orange
- 1 cup blackberries – ½ cup for mulled wine and the rest for fresh garnish
- 1 cup cranberries – ½ cup for mulled wine and ½ cup for fresh garnish
- ½ cup pomegranate seeds
- ¼ cup honey
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 1 tsp. cloves
- star anise – optional for garnish
- thyme – optional for garnish
Instructions
- In a pot, pour 1 bottle of red wine, 1 cup apple cider and ¼ cup of honey. Add 3 cinnamon sticks and 1 tsp. of cloves in a tea egg (or wrapped in cheese cloth and tied with baker’s string). Place a lid on top and simmer on very low heat for 20 minutes. Never allow it to boil.
- While the wine simmers with the cider, spices and honey, slice 1 green apple, 1 orange, 1 lemon and 1 lime.
- When finished, pour mulled wine into a jug or container with sliced fruit, ½ cup of blackberries and ½ cup cranberries. Add ¼ cup of brandy, stir gently and refrigerate for 2-3 hours until cold.
- For garnish, thinly slice 1 lemon, 1 lime, and 1 green apple. Add ice to glasses and pour sangria, adding some of the drunken fruit, and leaving some room for fresh fruit. Add blackberries, pomegranate seeds, cranberries, and sliced fruit with optional star anise/herbal garnish.
Terri
Hi Genevieve! I would love to make this sangria for my Christmas party! Your explantion of it say’s that it is a sparkling coctail but there is no sparling wine in the ingredient list. Can you tell me if this was a misprint or do you add sparling wine?
Genevieve Morrison
You know what? That was a typo. I think I originally made it sparkling because it’s just as yummy with a splash of cava or prosecco on top, but I’m pretty sure I realized some folks may not want to buy both wine and something sparkling, so it didn’t make it into the final recipe. I removed it, but you certainly can top the sangria with some prosecco if you want to add a little sparkle. Thank you for catching that!
Constance
lol thanks for testing the babys breath!
Karen Davis
Your recipe sounds awesome ND I will be making this weekend.
I am a home baker, and have learned that baby’s breath is toxic when consumed; just thought I’d pass that on. Bakers do not use on cakes for this reason.
Genevieve Morrison
Thank you for your note. Interestingly, I’ve done hours and hours of research on just HOW toxic baby’s breath is, and if you research yourself, you’ll find it’s almost impossible to find. I did find an example of a horse that ate a whole bush and got sick, but survived – but nothing about how much a human would have to eat to get sick (or even feel sick). This will sound crazy (because I am), but I decided to do a test myself. I ate about a heaping tablespoon of flowers. Nothing happened. Not even an upset stomach. That’s not to say someone else wouldn’t have a reaction. It’s obviously not a scientific study… but something worth noting, there is actually a far more toxic (actually lethal) ingredient in this recipe: It’s the main one. There’s far more data on how deadly alcohol is than baby’s breath. In fact, water is “toxic” at certain levels, so until I find some definitive research on it, I’m not too worried about it.