Diamine - Mulled Wine

Diamine Mulled Wine - deep, rich ink drop

Mulled Wine is another of the inks originally released in Diamine’s 2019 Christmas Inkvent calendar. Today, it’s available as part of their Blue Edition ink, which come in beautiful, 50ml, legged presentation bottles. In Europe, Scandinavia, and the UK, mulled wine is a traditional winter drink of red wine mixed with spices and orange slices and served warm. This is great inspiration for a winter holiday ink!

Visually, Mulled Wine is a beautifully rich, purple scarlet. It’s the deep, complex red of a Cabernet Sauvignon. There’s a powdery quality, and a cool inner glow that really make it an inviting color. The key feature, however, is the dark, wide stroke edging. It can be seen in the splatter, and it was extremely prominent in written strokes on all papers tested except office copy. It beautifully frames each stroke, providing the edge contrast and depth that really makes strokes pop. They almost float above the page. There are some hints of shading on coated papers, but this isn’t a strong shader. I always like nice shading, but with such strong visuals already, the lack of strong shading isn’t a big disappointment.

Diamine Mulled Wine - ink swatch card and drying

As a writing ink, Mulled Wine performs well, but not consistently across paper types. You need to pair it properly. Strokes were clean and sharp on the coated premium papers I tested, and on Fabriano uncoated, too. However, Apica (uncoated) showed some feather, and office copy was not really good at all. Shading was light on coated papers, and mostly absent from the others tested. Stroke edging was the strongest quality, and was dark and thick on all but office copy. Drying was slow on both coated and uncoated premiums at 30-40 seconds, but it was a quick 5 seconds on office copy. This is a good writing ink on nice papers, and some of the visual features make it even better.

With careful pairing, Diamine Mulled Wine is a lovely ink! Stick with with coated premiums for best results, and you’ll be pleased. The color has a delicious richness and glow, and the halo really is magical. If you can keep it away from office copy paper, this ink is definitely recommended.

January 2021