Make wine at home this Christmas

We’ve invited a few expert and passionate wine brewers to help you attempt homemade Christmas wine in your kitchen

Hear it from the wine-maker

Pic/Shadab Khan

An amateur wine brewer for a decade, Dharmesh Ashar experiments with various fruits apart from grapes, including strawberries, mosambi, bananas, guava and even litchis. For Christmas, he’s made a batch of dragon fruit wine spiced with cinnamon which has been fermenting since August, and is almost ready for bottling. “Wine-making is an art,” the self-taught Juhu resident tells us. “The most important factors to keep in mind are hygiene and patience. It is important to think about fungus and moulds; they can ruin an entire batch. Sanitisation of your utensils, knives, even the juicer or blender is crucial. The simplest and most traditional way is to soak them in boiling water for 10 minutes,” he shares.

While you may not be able to ferment your wine from scratch now, he has a handy idea. “Take a bottle of your favourite red, and three hours before you plan to have it, add some cinnamon or cloves to it and close the cork/cap tightly.  Now, keep the bottle in a hot water bath and let it rest for 45 minutes. Enjoy your instant batch of mulled wine. Boiling bottled wine will mess with the notes and flavours. This is a teaser of a typical mulled wine without much waiting or hassle,” he signs off.

Get your Gluhwein

About 110 days before X’mas every year, chef Aditi Keni begins to make Glühwein or mulled wine. “Glühwein or glu(o)gi is German-style mulled wine meant to be drunk hot; sometimes with a dash of rum.

A bottle of Gluhwein

I use a Cabernet sauvignon grape juice and mulling spices, seasonal stone fruit and lots of citrus. A German-Canadian professor gave me this recipe. I take the leftover fruits and spices and stuff them in a whole chicken and bake it,” she tells us.
Cost: Rs 1,500 for 750 ml;
Call: 9820444561

Aunty knows best

Kadambari Gupte, a publicist from Parel, learnt how to make a Christmas pour from her aunt Ashwini Pande in London, when she was pursuing her Masters in fashion. “Add spices depending on your taste as many don’t like the strong flavour of cinnamon. You can add the cinnamon sticks or even powder them. I prefer putting them as whole as the fragrance is stronger. You can also place it in an airtight container and store it in the fridge for up to three or four days,” she says.

Rice, rice, baby

North Eastern food curator Gitika Saikia makes a rice wine for the season. “The rice is aged and the yeast needs 15 herbs which I source from Assam. It is a seven-to-10-day process; I remember making this with my mother as a kid. Always keep your wine refrigerated. The first press is the most potent and sweet,” says Saika, who makes it on request.
Call: 9820445990

Trust your instincts

Pooja Vir, a hospitality advisor, makes wine using a Polish friend’s recipe she learnt when she was living in London. “It’s her family favourite that I requested for my mum who loves mulled wine. This recipe needs no steeping,” she says. A suggestion for newbies: “When it comes to mulled wine, treat a recipe as merely a suggestion. Be generous with the spices, trust your instincts and make sure you always have some Christmas music on when you’re making it.”

Spiced wine

To a bottle of wine, add 125 gm of brown sugar, a stick of cinnamon, peels of a lemon, one lime peel, one orange peel with its juice, three to four cloves, two star anise, one javitri, two bay leaves and ¼ tsp grated nutmeg. Simmer the wine along with the ingredients on a slow flame for one to two hours. Avoid letting it boil. Cool completely before consuming.

Recipe: Mulled wine

Ingredients
>> A handful of cloves
>> A handful of dried orange peel
>> 1 inch peeled ginger, roughly cubed
>> A handful of cinnamon sticks
>> 1 vanilla pod
>> 2 to 3 prunes
>>  2 to 3 star anise
>> 2 to 3 handfuls of raisins
>>  ½ tbsp of freshly ground nutmeg
>>  A handful of green cardamom pods, crushed
>> 1 bottle red wine
>> 200 gm sugar
>> Juice of one malta orange
>> 100 ml vodka
>> Almond slivers to garnish

Method
Boil one and a half to two litres of water and add all the spices. Allow the mix to simmer for half an hour. Drain the spicy water into a large pot and add the red wine, sugar and orange juice. Heat this mix but make sure it doesn’t boil. Take the mix off the heat and add the vodka. Pour into mugs and garnish with raisins and almonds.

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