Coming soon to a store near you: wines from New Jersey! If the prospect of wines from New Jersey sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, consider the fact that the prospect of good wines from California was once considered a joke as well. Today, California wines are drunk and praised all over the world.

The same might happen with wines from New Jersey — and from South Jersey in particular. Recent legal changes in New Jersey laws are about to make it possible.

In the Middle Ages, people thought mulled wines were good for one's health. That's why they named mulled wines Ypocras or Hipocris, after the ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates. One of the oldest mulled wine recipes that still exists can be found in Robert May's book The Accomplisht Cook from 1660.

Mulled wines were very popular in the Victorian era and in fact what we know as a mulled wine today — the general ingredients, that is — comes largely from the Victorian era. Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts has recreated a 1850s Victorian village of America and in one of their newsletters they reproduced a mulled wine recipe first published in the 1851 book "Directions for Cookery".

There was a time when wine was more commonly served to children, not merely adults, and this included mulled wine as well. During the Victorian era a particular mulled wine recipe just for children was developed. Named "Negus," it was served during the Christmas holidays and sometimes kids' birthday parties.

Mulled wines don't have to be complex and difficult. It's possible to make a simple, basic mulled wine that captures the essential flavors and experience of the Christmas holidays.

If you enjoy this style of mulled wine, though, you should try making a more complex mulled wine as well at some point.