Blueberry Wine Glühwein

Glühwein means "glow wine." Warm a cup, drink it slow, and you'll feel exactly that — a glow in your cheeks, heat from the inside out.

Traditional Glühwein starts with red wine, sugar, and spice — cinnamon, cloves, orange peel, cardamom, simmered slow until the kitchen smells like a Christmas market. Swap in blueberry wine and you get something new. The fruit brings its own sweetness, so you add less sugar. The color turns deep and rich. The flavor gets a layer red wine never had.

What is blueberry wine?

A fruit wine, fermented from blueberries instead of grapes. Sweet, deep purple, full-bodied. Look for something semi-sweet — dry blueberry wine fights the spice instead of carrying it, and a wine that's too sweet throws off the balance you want between sugar and acid.

Blueberry Wine Glühwein

Makes about 6 cups

• 1 bottle blueberry wine
• Sugar, to taste
• ⅓ cup water
• 1 orange, sliced
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 6 whole cloves
• 8 allspice berries
• 1 star anise (optional)

Steps

1. Combine everything in a pot over medium-low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
2. Bring to a simmer. Don't let it boil — boiling wine loses its character.
3. Turn off the heat. Let it steep for 10 minutes so the spices open up.
4. Strain, or serve as is with the orange slices still in the pot.
5. Keep it warm on low heat until you're ready to pour.
6. Serve in a Glühwein mug, with a few blueberries dropped in for color.

Skip the fresh spices

A Sitin mulling spice kit gives you the same cinnamon, clove, and orange in one bag — steep it in blueberry wine the same way, no measuring, no straining out stems and pods after.

Shop Cinnamon Smolder Mulling Spice →