National Mulled Wine Day – March 3, 2025

History of National Mulled Wine Day

While records officially put spiced (a.k.a. mulled) wine in our world in the second century, there is a distinct possibility the drink has been around for a lot longer. Historians say mulled wine might have been present in Ancient Greece. It is assumed that they would put spices into their wine to prevent waste (adding spices makes wine last longer) and make the drinks as palatable as possible. One theory is that they called this spiced wine ‘hippocras,’ after the father of medicine, Hippocrates.

It is also believed that the ancient Romans took inspiration from this Greek tradition and wound up spicing their wines, too. Heated and spiced wine — on the official record — first appeared during the time of the ancient Romans. They called their mulled wine ‘Conditum Paradoxum,’ and it became immensely popular with the Romans (a version of this recipe is still sold today!). The possibility is high that they took their wine — and their wine culture — to each place they invaded and conquered.

The Middle Ages was when mulled wine shined. Popularity peaked during this time, as people loved the taste, and they believed — rightly so — that the spices made them healthier and less prone to illness. Before this time, various terms like ‘spiced wine’ and sometimes even ‘mulled wine’ were used, but this became official in 1618 when this word entered the dictionary. Merriam-Webster wrote ‘mull’ as a verb and defined it as “to heat, sweeten, and flavor (as wine or cider) with spices.”

The current perception of mulled wine as a spicy, festive, winter-time drink comes from Victorian England when most people would partake of this during Christmas. Recipe books as far back as 1390 detail mixing spices like ground cinnamon, ginger, pepper, and so on, with red wine.

Decades later, countries around the world have their own recipes and versions of mulled wine. Variations include everything from red and white wines to vermouth to port.