Mulled wine with boreal spices

Every year, when the holiday season arrives, I only want one thing: to drink a comforting cup of aromatic mulled wine. But traditional mulled wine, also known as "glühwein" in German, is filled with exotic spices. We generally find cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, vanilla, star anise, in addition to citrus fruits, which also grow far from us.

So Kevin and I had the idea of ​​creating a more local version. Without eliminating all the "exotic" products from the recipe, we wanted to create a mulled wine that would highlight the flavors of our Northern region. We therefore concocted this recipe which is more delicate than those we know and which uses local spices and aromatics. As a bonus, it highlights a seasonal fruit: cranberries.

A perfect recipe to serve right before midnight on December 31, at your New Year's Day party! Cheers!

- Marie-Philippe

Ingredients

• 1 bottle of well-balanced Québec red wine (not too tart or too tannic). We recommend the R1 from the Les Bacchantes vineyard, the Frontenac-Petite perle from Val Caudalies, or the Thomas or Julien vintages from Léon Courville;
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar;
• 1/4 cup maple syrup;
• 4 tbsp. of sweetfern catkins + their branches;
• 1 tbsp. tablespoon of powdered sweet clover;
• 2 tbsp. sweetfern;
• 8 balsam fir shoots measuring 2-3 cm;
• 2 teaspoons of Québec lavender ;
• 2 lemon slices;
• half an orange, sliced;
• 1/2 cup fresh cranberries + 3 cranberries per cup for decoration;
• 2 microplane gratings nutmeg;
• Optional (but delicious): a few drops of cranberry or angostura cocktail bitters in each cup

Path to follow

1. Remove the sweetfern catkins from the branches and dry roast them together in a pot over medium heat until nicely aromatic, about 2 minutes.
2. Add white sugar and continue roasting, 30 seconds to 1 minute. If the sugar starts to melt, move on to the next step right away.
3. Add the maple syrup and just enough wine to cover the sugar, then the rest of the aromatics: sweet clover, sweetfern, balsam fir, lavender, lemon, orange, cranberries and nutmeg. Let simmer for 5 minutes. The sugar should be completely melted and the liquid should have thickened slightly. The goal here is to obtain a kind of aromatic and sweet syrup which will give its flavor to the entire mulled wine recipe.
4. Using a pestle or the back of a fork, mash the citrus fruits and cranberries to release the juice. Watch out for splashes of cranberry juice!
5. Add the rest of the wine and reduce the heat. Let all the wine warm without boiling or simmering, about 5 minutes.
6. Strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth and serve in heatproof cups or glasses. If desired, add a few drops of cocktail bitters to each cup. Garnish each cup with 3 fresh cranberries.