Step 1

Pour 1/2 cup wine from bottle (just enough to allow room to add the other ingredients to bottle); reserve for another use. Gradually add sugar to bottle through a funnel, and add cloves and remaining ingredients. Recap bottle, and shake vigorously. Chill overnight.

Step 2

Strain through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a 2-quart pitcher.

Step 3

Yield:5-1/2 cups (serving size: 1/2 cup).

Step 4

NOTES : Drink from the healer's sleeve! As legend would have it, this beverage was once filtered through the "sleeve of Hippocrates," the 17th-century term for a conical filter that's made of linen, cotton, or wool. Hippocrates was the famed Greek physician who probably observed that the more you drink, the less you speak, and, so over time (or many goblets), Hippocrates becomes "Ipocras." Inexpensive wine with the screw-on cap is best for this sweet drink. Recipe can be doubled by starting with a 3-liter bottle, removing 1 cup of wine, and doubling the remaining ingredients.