jean’s kitchen

By JEAN DOHERTY/LE PATIO

KIR French cocktail

Kir is a popular French cocktail made with a measure of crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) topped up with white wine. In France it is usually drunk as an apéritif before a meal or snack. Originally, the wine used was Bourgogne Aligoté, a lesser white wine of Burgundy. Nowadays, various white wines are used throughout France, according to the region and the whim of the barkeeper. Many prefer a white Chardonnay – b a s e d Burgundy, such as Chablis.

Monsieur Félix Kir (born in 1876 in Côte d’Or, in the heart of Burgundy) was a canon, ordained as a Catholic priest in 1901. He used to be a major resistance fighter against the German occupation during WWII and got the French Legion of Honor Cross in 1946.That same year, he became a member of French Parliament as a “député” and mayor of Dijon, the most important city of Burgundy.

It was during this time that he started serving, for all public event parties in Dijon, an apéritif most French people already knew under the “blanc-cassis” name (white wine & blackcurrant).

And now the original proportions of a true “KIR”

• 1/3 blackcurrant cream from Dijon

• 2/3 white Burgundy wine (Aligoté grapes)

However, in most bars and “cafés” Kir is now made with these proportions:

• 1/5 blackcurrant cream from Dijon
• 4/5 white wine (dry is best)

You can make many variations of this recipe, with raspberry, blackberry ( my personal favorite) or peach cream, Champagne (makes a royal Kir) or other sparkling wines. I must pay a tribute to the clairvoyance of Mayor Kir, who died in 1968 at the age of 92, who allowed this small regional drink to become, today, the most preferred apéritif in the world.