Kir
A kir is a short, chilled French apéritif where dry white wine is laced with just enough blackcurrant liqueur to turn it lightly fruity, softly sweet, and very easy to drink before a meal.
Ingredients
- 20 ml blackcurrant liqueur crème de cassis de Dijon
- 80 ml dry white wine any decent dry white wine
Equipment
Instructions
The base blackcurant liqueur
- Pour the crème de cassis into a wine glass.
Top up
- Top up with the chilled white wine.
Serve
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
Notes
- Modern kirs use 1/5 cassis to 4/5 wine. The original recipe from the early 1900s was 1/3 cassis to 2/3 wine, much sweeter. Today's version is lighter, less alcoholic, easier to drink.
- Bourgogne Aligoté is the traditional white wine for this drink. It's acidic, crisp, with green apple notes that cut through the sweetness of the blackcurrant. But don't worry, any dry white wine works.
- The real blackcurrant liqueur is the so called "crème de cassis from Dijon" It's about 15-20% alcohol, dark and intensely fruity. Other fruit liqueurs (peach, cherry, raspberry) don't make a kir, they make a different drink entirely.
- A well-made kir is almost violet. Too pale and you haven't added enough cassis. Too dark and it'll be cloying.
- Serve the wine properly chilled instead of using ice. Ice dilutes the drink and ruins the balance.
- If you want to make a "Kir Royale", just replace the white wine with Champagne or Crémant de Bourgogne. Same proportions.