Place wine, sugar and spices in saucepan, and heat until sugar dissolves. Peel the pears, leaving the stalks on, but remove the core from the bottom using a thin, sharp knife or a potato peeler. Put the pears into the syrup and simmer gently for about 20 minutes or until tender. Remove the pears to a dish, and reduce the syrup by half by boiling rapidly. Spoon syrup over pears. Cool, and decorate with gilded bay leaves stuck in by the stalk.