Mulled Wine Facts Worth Mulling Over

Mulled wine is a festive classic, but have you ever mulled over the origins of this spiced yuletide beverage?

Have you ever wondered who was the first to brew this classic Christmas tipple? And why should we be thanking Charles Dickens for it?

From the first English recipe to the most expensive glass in the world, here are ten tantalizing facts about mulled wine to wrap your taste buds around!

Written in the 2nd Century BC by Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus, the comedy Curculio (also called The Forgery) holds the earliest known reference to mulled wine.

In a scene where the character of Curculio is talking to himself about the fellows around him, he says: “You may always see them enjoying themselves in the hot liquor shops; when they have scraped up some trifle, with their covered pates they are drinking mulled wine.”

Sounds not that dissimilar to modern times, no?

We all know the ancient Greeks were into their wine, but sometimes their harvests wouldn’t go exactly to plan.

So, to make the most of a bad batch of vino, they would add herbs and spices to make it more palatable, then heat it to help warm their bodies throughout the upcoming cold months.