Dry white wine is lifted by a measure of crème de cassis, which tints its pale gold rose-pink and lays a ripe blackcurrant edge over the wine's crisp acidity. Light, fruit-edged and faintly tart, it is built straight in the glass and drunk chilled before a meal — the still-wine template that the Kir Royale later dressed up with bubbles.
built · Wine glass · Up
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Pour the crème de cassis into the bottom of a chilled wine glass.
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Top up with chilled dry white wine (traditionally Bourgogne Aligoté).
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Serve straight up, chilled, with no ice and no garnish.
The drink carries the name of Canon Félix Kir (1876–1968), the resistance-hero mayor of Dijon, who served it at civic receptions after the Second World War to promote the region's crème de cassis and Bourgogne Aligoté. He popularised rather than invented it: white wine sweetened with blackcurrant liqueur, known locally as blanc-cassis, already appeared in nineteenth-century recipes, and crème de cassis had been produced commercially since 1841. German seizures of red Burgundy during the war are said to have pushed the mix toward white wine. Its best-known offshoot, the Kir Royal, swaps the still wine for Champagne.