Mulled Wine
Note Profile
About
Hot baking spice over red wine. Cinnamon and clove lead, with star anise behind them. Orange peel cuts across the top. Under the spice is a dry, fermented red-wine body, and the whole thing is rounded off with a syrupy sweetness and a soft musk. It smells warm and cooked, not fresh.
Scent Profile
Warm_spice leads and this is the whole argument of the note. DUA's own summary is 'Aromatic and Spicy' and its copy says the cloves and cinnamon 'give this drink its autumnal flavor'. Both candle suppliers open on 'warm clove and cinnamon'. Boozy is the red wine. DUA is explicit that 'red wine is what really sits at the heart of this composition', but it sits under the spice, so it is scored below the published red-wine note. Citrus is orange and is named by all three sources, as 'Fresh Oranges' and as 'lush orange'. Fruity is the wine's own jammy fruit plus the berry both candle suppliers name. Sweet_vanillic covers the maple syrup, the vanilla and the sweetness DUA attributes to star anise. Clean_musk is the white musk DUA names in the base. Aromatic_herbal is the anise and cardamom side of the spice bundle, which is aromatic rather than purely warm. Below the naming line: honeyed for the maple syrup's other half, dry_woody for the 'dry richness' DUA claims for the wine accord, fresh_spice for the cardamom, amber_resinous, sour kept low because the drink is sweetened, earthy and green.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
Origin
A prepared drink, not a material. Red wine is heated with citrus and whole spices, usually cinnamon, clove, star anise and cardamom, and sweetened. The perfumery note is a reconstruction. DUA Fragrances builds it from fresh orange, cinnamon, clove, star anise, cardamom, maple syrup, red wine and white musk. Two candle-oil suppliers describe their versions with the same words: orange, clove, cinnamon, berry and vanilla.
Usage in Perfumery
A winter and Christmas note. It appears in gourmand and spicy-oriental compositions and very heavily in candles and home fragrance, where the seasonal association does most of the work. In fine fragrance it gives a spiced-wine warmth that a plain red-wine accord cannot reach.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Mulled Wine
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Mulled Wine appears prominently.
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