Are you crazy?! There IS no best recipe for mulled wine. Heating up cheap red wine simply gives you heated-up cheap red wine no matter how many bags of spice you bung in to take the taste away. And what’s the point of heating up expensive red wine?
Instead, try Pimm’s No.3 Winter (£12.99 per 70cl; selected supermarkets and independents). This 25%vol brandy-based twist on summer’s classic fruit cup is full of cinnamon, caramel and orange zest flavours. You can serve it on ice with one part Pimm’s to three parts ginger ale (the deliciously natural Fever-Tree ginger ale is best) or, as the producers suggest, gently warmed with one part Pimm’s to three parts clear apple juice. Either way is deeply moreish.