Mulled white wine: a 'quirky' Christmas hit?

From cinnamon sticks to lemon zest, many of us add our own little twist to a mulled wine recipe. "But, until now, most would agree that the wine in question is red," said Alice Fisher in The Observer. "Not this year, though."

As Marks & Spencer debuts its first mulled white wine, supermarkets are hoping the tipple will be a "big hit". Taking inspiration from the glühwein commonly enjoyed at German and Austrian Christmas markets, retailers are hoping to tap into Brits' "changing taste in wine".

Maddie Love, a product developer at M&S, said she hoped the brand's mulled white wine would "appeal to those who prefer a more delicate flavour profile", thanks to its "lighter, fruitier notes" of vanilla and pear.

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The origins of mulled wine can be traced back thousands of years to when the ancient Greeks used to "dump spices into the wine and heat it up" in order to "prevent waste", said Nick Hines in Vine Pair. By the Middle Ages the spiced beverage "really took off" and was widely believed to impart an array of health benefits. In Victorian England Charles Dickens helped to cement its association with the festive period when he mentioned a version of mulled wine called Smoking Bishop in "A Christmas Carol".

Already on drinks menus across Europe, mulled white wine is "by no means anything new", said Hannah Crosbie in The Guardian, "but it's certainly a curiosity for this year's festive high-street offering".

I don't know why retailers "persist" with these novel takes on seasonal staples, said Celia Walden in The Telegraph. I can just about cope with supermarkets trying to "flog me" "halloumi pigs in blankets" but when I heard about this latest Christmas hit "my vision went blotchy and my ears were filled with white noise". There should be "rules about these things, laws like those we use to protect historical buildings".

But M&S's mulled white wine is likely to "appeal to most people, even the ones who don't particularly like wine", said Crosbie. It tastes of "pear drops" and is "very sweet on the palate". And while this isn't a complex wine, at £6.50 a bottle does it need to be? "It's perfectly fit for purpose. Ask me again after my fourth glass."