Easy Slow Cooker Mulled Wine

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Slow Cooker Mulled Wine is a holiday tradition for a reason.

It’s so easy, and my goodness, does it taste good.

Getting ready for the holidays means thinking about what drinks to serve at your holiday gatherings.

I’d like to recommend slow cooker mulled wine for a variety of reasons.

A Simple Slow Cooker Mulled Wine Recipe

It’s simple to make, and you can prepare it ahead of time.

It fills your home with the most enticing aroma, and it’s easy to make more if you have more guests than you expected.

When your guests walk in the door, they will be enveloped in the mulled wine’s intoxicating fragrance.

 

 

It really sets a festive mood as well as being great to sip.

I like to think of slow cooker mulled wine as winter’s sangria.

It’s a crowd pleaser, and it’s so easy to make in a large batch.

And if you run out, you can have the next batch ready in less than 20 minutes.

And if you’re serving a large group of people, you can have some ready to serve and have some simmering in the kitchen while enjoying the evening.

That’s the beauty of making it in the crock pot.

And if you have more than one crock pot, then you can really serve it up!

Mulled wine is like wintertime sangria.

It’s perfect for all of your holiday occasions, tastes and smells great, and is so easy to make in the slow cooker.

Mulled Wine in the Crockpot

 

 

The great thing about making mulled wine is that it not only tastes and smells great, it’s good for keeping your budget down too.

Since you’ll be adding spices to the wine, you don’t have to select a top shelf bottle.

In the instance of mulled wine, it’s alright to use a sweeter vintage like a red Zinfandel.

But feel free to experiment with your favorite red wine. I’ve even enjoyed this made with Two Buck Chuck.

And it was quite enjoyable, especially because the spices are doing the heavy lifting.

Can I make mulled wine with white wine?

While I made this batch of mulled wine with red wine, you can use white wine too.

It will look a bit like golden caramel after it’s been warmed.

If you’re using a white wine, I like to use a Pinot Grigio, Reisling or Gewurztraminer.

We have some helpful descriptions on choosing wine for a holiday meal that would be helpful in choosing what wine to mull.

And if you love warm, mulled drinks, be sure to check out some of our favorite mulled apple cider cocktails too.

Ingredients you need to make Slow Cooker Mulled Wine

We’re using a spice blend for this recipe; it’s the Sweet & Spicy Blend from The Zen of Slow Cooking.

It tastes great and has the perfect fall seasoning combo of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger.

• Two 750 mL bottles of wine – I used a red Zinfandel
• 1 Mulling Spices blend from the Zen of Slow Cooking, or a homemade spice bag
• 2 Apples, sliced with stem removed
• 2 Oranges, sliced
• Honey, optional to taste

Note: If you don’t have the Sweet & Spicy blend we used, you can make your own spice blend and wrap it in cheese cloth.

What to put in your own mulling spice bag

We like to include a cinnamon stick, a dozen or so whole cloves, allspice berries, and, cardamom.

If you enjoy their flavor, you can also include a star anise pod.

You can even add in some crystallized ginger, peppercorns, and/or dried orange peel if you’d like.

You can really customize the flavor if you’re making the spice bags yourself.

Just take a small square of cheesecloth, and put the spices on the cloth.

Then bring the edges up around the spices to make a bag, and tie it closed with kitchen twine.

 

 

Can you make non alcoholic mulled wine?

It’s simple to make this recipe without alcohol.

Instead of using red wine, I  like to substitute Welch’s non-alcoholic Sangria.

It gives more of a wine taste than using a grape juice.

However, if the sangria isn’t available, the grape juice works great too.

And of course, you can always use a spiced cider.

I like to add a little bit more of the spices when making it without the alcohol.

How to make Slow Cooker Mulled Wine

Pre-steps: To make clean up easy, line your slow cooker with a slow cooker liner.

You can also prepare your spice blend bags ahead of time.

Once you’ve prepared your slow cooker, turn it to low and pour the two bottles of wine into the pot.

Add one spice blend or homemade spice bag to the wine and give it a gentle stir.

Slice the apples and oranges and add them to the pot as well.

Close the lid and leave it to warm.

You want to keep an eye on it to make sure that it does not come to a boil.

The reason for that is two-fold.

First, you don’t want the alcohol to cook out, and secondly, you don’t want the beverage or alcohol to evaporate. 

Serve warm and enjoy!

To serve, if your event is casual, a lot of hosts like to serve it straight from the crock pot.

If it’s a more formal event, you may transfer the drink to a pitcher or a punch bowl. 

 

More seasonal drinks recipes for you to try:

Ginger Apple Whiskey Punch

Slow Cooker Hot Holiday Punch

Fireball and Red Hots Spiced Apple Cider

Mulled Apple Cider Wassail

Sparkling Honey Cranberry Ginger Punch

Holiday Red Sangria Punch

Caorunn Holiday Tea Punch

French Rose Champagne Punch

Blood Orange Punch

Penitent Punch

Orange Cranberry Punch

Blood Orange Punch

Apple Cider Mimosa Recipe

Slow Cooker Baileys Pumpkin Spice Hot Chocolate

Bourbon Pecan Pie Cocktail

Cinnamon Pear Martini

Tuaca Apple Pie Cocktail

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try it and share!

Please let us know how you enjoy our Slow Cooker Mulled Wine recipe.

If you make it yourself, please let us know on Pinterest that you tried it and tag us with #champagneandcoconuts on your Instagram photo.

If you haven’t had a chance to make it yet, be sure to save the recipe on Pinterest so you’ll remember where you found it.

You may enjoy following our Pinterest Boards, Mulled WineRecipes and Christmas Cocktail and Mocktail Recipes.

 

 

This recipe was originally published November 23, 2018. We’ve added new photos and updated the post on September 15, 2020.

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