Vin fiert

Ingredients

The wine

• 1.5 litresred wine
• a Moldovan red if you can
• Fetească Neagră or Rară Neagră
• or any simple dry red
• nothing expensive

The sweetening

• 150 ghoney
• or to taste
• a local honey if possible
• or 120 g sugar

The spices

• 2cinnamon sticks
• 10whole cloves
• 4allspice berries
• 2star anise
• optional
• a few black peppercorns
• optional

The citrus and fruit

• 1orange, sliced
• or a strip of peel
• 1lemon, sliced
• 1apple, sliced
• optional
• a few dried plums
• optional

To serve

• heatproof glasses or mugs
• a cinnamon stick per glass
• an orange slice
• walnuts, alongside

Directions

1. Heat brings out tannin and makes it harsh. Do not add honey while the wine is hot. Let the wine cool slightly first. Stir it in until it dissolves. Do not actually boil the wine at all.
2. Heat it gently until it steams only. You should see steam but no bubbles. Keep the heat low and do not let it boil. Keep a lid nearby to smother any flames. Do not lean over the pan while heating. Use whole spices rather than ground ones. Some people love it and others do not.
3. Wash the fruit thoroughly before slicing. Unwaxed fruit is better if you can get it. Use peel rather than whole slices for long heating. Pour the wine into a large heavy pan. Add the spices and the citrus. Add the apple and dried plums if using.
4. Heat it very gently over a low flame. Do not let it approach a simmer at all. Keep it there for about twenty minutes. Stir it occasionally as it warms. Now take the pan off the heat.
5. Let it stand for two or three minutes. Now stir in the honey until it dissolves. Taste it and adjust the sweetness. It should be warmly spiced and clearly sweet.
6. Add a squeeze of lemon if it tastes flat. Add more honey if it is too sharp. Warm the glasses with hot water first. Pour that water away before filling them. Cold glass cracks when hot liquid hits it.
7. Use heatproof glasses or sturdy mugs. Add a cinnamon stick as a stirrer. Serve it hot rather than merely warm. Hot drinks are absorbed more quickly. Make it fresh, since it does not keep well. That keeps two weeks refrigerated. Heat it with the same spices and honey.

Technique

• Do not boil it, despite the name. Boiling drives off the alcohol and makes the wine taste stewed. Heat it until it steams, around seventy degrees, with no bubbles.
• Add the honey off the heat, after the pan has stood a couple of minutes. Strong heat destroys honey’s aroma compounds and it ends up tasting simply like sugar, which defeats the point of using it. That single change makes a real difference.
• Use whole spices, never ground. Ground spices make the wine cloudy and gritty and settle in the glass. And do not use too many — over-spiced mulled wine tastes medicinal.
• Use peel rather than whole citrus slices if you are keeping it warm for a long time, since pith turns the wine bitter.
• Do not use an expensive wine. The honey and spices dominate completely, and heat brings out tannin, so avoid oaked or tannic bottles.
• Heating wine produces alcohol vapour that can ignite from a gas flame, and alcohol flames are nearly invisible in daylight. Wine is weak enough that the risk is small, but keep the heat low and do not lean over the pan.
• The drink stays alcoholic. Gentle heating removes little, the honey and spice disguise the strength, hot drinks are absorbed faster, and alcohol dilates blood vessels so you feel warm while losing heat — which matters standing outdoors in a Moldovan winter.
• A Soviet anti-alcohol campaign from 1985 saw vineyards uprooted across the union, and Moldova lost a large area of vines including old and valuable plantings. The industry took decades to recover and has since faced politically-motivated export bans. That history is part of why wine matters so much there.
• Make a spiced honey syrup ahead if you are serving a crowd. It keeps two weeks refrigerated and lets you warm wine to order rather than holding a pot hot for hours.

Substitutions

• Any everyday dry red replaces a Moldovan one; Fetească Neagră and Rară Neagră are the local varieties.
• Sugar replaces honey, though honey is the characteristic Moldovan sweetening and worth keeping.
• A strongly flavoured honey such as linden stands up better than a very mild acacia.
• Apple slices or dried plums are common additions; Moldova produces a great many of both.
• Strips of pared peel replace whole citrus slices and avoid bitterness over long heating.
• Grape juice replaces the wine for a non-alcoholic version, which Moldova produces in quantity.

Variations

• Slovak varené víno, Czech svařené víno, German Glühwein and Nordic glögg are the same idea under their own names.
• A white wine version, mulled with honey, lemon and ginger, is lighter and is made in some households.
• Some households add a splash of divin, the Moldovan brandy, off the heat.
• A version with far more dried fruit, closer to a punch, is made at Christmas.
• Must, the unfermented grape juice, is heated with the same spices for children.
• Some families use their own homemade wine, which is genuinely the most common practice.

History

Standard at Moldovan winter holidays and at the National Wine Day celebrations in Chișinău.

Frequently asked questions

What is Vin fiert?

Vin fiert is a cocktail from Moldova: red wine mulled with honey, cloves and citrus, drunk in cold months. Standard at Moldovan winter holidays and at the National Wine Day celebrations in Chișinău.

How long does Vin fiert take to make?

Vin fiert takes 10 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Vin fiert?

Yes, within limits. Any everyday dry red replaces a Moldovan one; Fetească Neagră and Rară Neagră are the local varieties. Sugar replaces honey, though honey is the characteristic Moldovan sweetening and worth keeping. A strongly flavoured honey such as linden stands up better than a very mild acacia. Apple slices or dried plums are common additions; Moldova produces a great many of both. Strips of pared peel replace whole citrus slices and avoid bitterness over long heating. Grape juice replaces the wine for a non-alcoholic version, which Moldova produces in quantity.

What is the most important thing to get right in Vin fiert?

Heat brings out tannin and makes it harsh. Do not add honey while the wine is hot. Let the wine cool slightly first. Stir it in until it dissolves. Do not actually boil the wine at all.