Spice up your holiday refreshments with hot Glogg - traditional Swedish wine drink.
You don’t have to go all the way to Europe to get the hygge-friendly Scandinavian hot spiced-wine favorite called glögg. The drink comes from Sweden (most Scandinavian countries make their own version), but we found some closer to home, in Northern California wine country.
What is hot Glogg?
Warm up your holiday season with a traditional hot glögg recipe that brings the cozy flavors of Scandinavian Christmas right into your home. This spiced, mulled wine is a festive favorite. It combines rich red wine, aromatic spices, and a touch of sweetness. Making hot Glogg a perfect drink for chilly winter nights.
In Napa, winemaker Mike Sjoblom at Sjoeblom Winery uses a vintage wine as his base for glögg. “It has half the sugar content — the base is good from the get-go. I import the spices from Sweden so I absolutely get the right components for the authentic flavor. Spiced wine goes back thousands of years to Romans and Greeks. It is one of the original ways to drink wine!”
Glögg comes from the old Swedish word for glow, as in (one assumes) the glowing coals originally used to heat — but never boil! — the wine. And warm is about all you have to do with Sjoeblom’s bottled glögg. Except maybe add some raisins — “We love that!” Sjoblom says.
Keep The Wine And Glögg Flowing
If you want to try your hand at making your own glögg, you can follow the lead of Katarina Bonde in Sonoma County, California. The Swedish Bonde has been making glögg for years for visitors at her West Wines winery in Healdsburg, where she set up shop shortly after moving from Sweden to the U.S. West Coast in 1992. When she couldn’t find glögg Stateside, she made her own and shared it with friends and guests.
Her annual glögg party at the West Wines tasting room in Dry Creek Valley always spices things up the first weekend after Thanksgiving. Here, Bonde happily shares her (spiked!) recipe for everyone who missed the party or just wants to keep it going.
West Wines Glögg
(Courtesy of Katarina Bonde, West Wines)
Makes 20 – 25 servings
Ingredients:
2 bottles of full-bodied red wine (use any inexpensive red wine as the spices disguise specific varietal flavors)
1 – 2 cups of brandy or cognac
½ teaspoon cardamom seeds
5 cinnamon sticks (soak the cinnamon sticks in water beforehand to release the flavor)
20 cloves
2 strips of dried orange rind
1 knob fresh ginger
½ cup raisins
1 cup of sugar (brown sugar works best)
For garnish:
1 package regular raisins
1 package blanched, slivered almonds
Mix all ingredients and let simmer in a pot. Do not let it boil since the alcohol will evaporate and alcohol enhances the flavors from the spices. Let wine and spices cool off. You can leave the spices and wine in the pot for a day or two to infuse more flavors. Then use a sieve and funnel to pour the glögg into empty bottles or some other vessel that you can close.
Serve in small cups and garnish each cup with some raisins and almond slivers. Make sure you also have teaspoons so the guests can get the soaked raisins out when they have finished the cup. They are great!
Photography: Courtesy of West Wines and Sjoeblom Winery.
