🍷 Kir
Also known as: kir cocktail, white wine and cassis
A French aperitif: white wine with blackcurrant liqueur.
Kir is a French aperitif. It is made from dry white wine and blackcurrant liqueur, crème de cassis. The recipe of the International Bartenders Association uses 10 ml of crème de cassis and 90 ml of dry white wine: the liqueur is poured into the glass and topped up with the wine.
Crème de cassis is a sweet blackcurrant liqueur. Its recipe was created in Dijon in 1841, and Cassis de Dijon, for example, must contain at least 400 g of sugar per litre and at least 15% alcohol by volume. Bourgogne Aligoté is a classic white wine for kir.
The name of the cocktail comes from Canon Félix Kir, deputy and mayor of Dijon in the 1950s, who promoted local products.
Kir has a sparkling sibling, kir royal: the same drink, but made with Champagne instead of still white wine. Kir belongs to wine cocktails. As with any alcohol, it should be drunk in moderation.
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Kir → → → 🍇 Aligoté → kind of → 🍇 Grape varieties → kind of → 🍷 Wine
Links
- What is used
- 🍇 Crème de… liqueur, 🥃 Crème de cassis
- Images and sayings
- 🥃 Cassis de Bourgogne, 🥃 Cassis de Dijon, 🥃 Cassis de Saintonge
- Part of
- 🍷 Wine cocktails
- Where it is made
- 🗺️ French wine
- Related to
- 🍇 Aligoté
- Similar and different
- 🍷 Kir royal, 📍 Burgundy, 🍷 Wine cocktails
Frequently asked questions
How much cassis goes in a kir by the IBA recipe?
10 ml of crème de cassis and 90 ml of dry white wine: the liqueur goes into the glass first and the wine tops it up.
Which white wine is classic for a kir?
A dry one, classically Bourgogne Aligoté.
Is it true that kir is named after a wine or a village?
No. It is named after Canon Félix Kir, deputy and mayor of Dijon in the 1950s, who promoted local products.
Recipes
What to read next
- 🍇 Aligoté — A white variety from France, an offspring of Pinot and Gouais blanc; in 2009 it covered 9,625 ha in Ukraine.
- 🗺️ French wine — The country's wine and winemaking: regions, grapes and appellations.
- 📍 Burgundy — A chain of vineyard slopes in eastern France from the Yonne to Beaujolais; 84 AOCs, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
- 🍇 Crème de… liqueur — Crème de… (EU category 34): a liqueur with at least 250 g/l of sugar and from 15% ABV, no milk products; crème de cassis, base of the kir, has over 400 g/l.
- 🥃 Cassis de Bourgogne — A French GI for crème de cassis, the blackcurrant liqueur behind the kir: berries grown and macerated in eastern Burgundy, at least 450 g/l sugar, 15–25% ABV, Noir de Bourgogne and Royal de Naples.
Similar
🍷 Wine cooler · 🍷 Kalimotxo · 🍷 Bellini · 🍷 Bowle · 🍷 Mimosa · 🍷 Spritz
⚠️ Wine contains alcohol: adults only, drink in moderation. Wine usually contains sulphites; egg white or milk proteins are sometimes used for fining — important for allergies and for vegans.
What it includes
Sources
- Wikidata
- International Bartenders Association (IBA): Kir, official recipe
- Cahier des charges de l'IG « Cassis de Bourgogne » (BO-Agri, 2025)
- Cahier des charges de l'IG « Cassis de Dijon » (arrêté du 7 août 2013)
- Taste France (Business France): Crème de cassis