Mulled wine tastes best when it's homemade. This guarantees that it won't be one of those fizzy drinks you're served at the Christmas market. The recipe here makes one bottle of mulled wine. A little short for Father Christmas, but enough for us. Flavouring wine is an age-old tradition dating back to the 13th century. It was used to preserve wine in the days before bottles and corks. Grape juice treated in this way, which incidentally was called Ypocras can be kept for up to a month without refrigeration.