Nothing makes a house smell better than the magical combination of cloves in hot wine. The point here is not to boil a sangria, we like to keep it simple and prefer whites.
Start with water and never let the wine go over 165F. The reason is water has a higher boiling point than ethanol, 212F vs 173F. Add cloves, cinnamon, a lemon slice without the rind, and sugar to the water and bring to a boil. This allows for a far superior extraction to occur rather than just with wine itself.
When the ingredients have achieved appropriate extraction in the boiling water it is time to add the wine. This time do not bring the mulled wine to a boil, when it hits 165F remove it from the heat and serve. In this way you don't lose any of the ethanol, that is the booze that makes us happy.
We do not like to use expensive wines for this. We came upon a 1.5 L bottle of 12% chardonnay for $7. It is by Liberty Creek in California. We were actually shocked at how pleasant it was to drink straight from the bottle all things aside. We will be getting more of this wine if the morning after is not an issue.
Back to the mulled wine. Do not hesitate to drink this if you are feeling a little ill. It is magical, does wonders. If a sweat breaks out let it happen, worry about the laundry and shower later. This mulled wine has helped me many times when I felt a cold coming on.
We regret not providing exact measurements, we are so good in the kitchen we eyeball things nowadays. Of course minimize the water. We guess our wine to water ratio was ~ 10/1. The joy of cooking is to experiment with things to find out how you like it. Enjoy.