While in Paris I tried to do as the Parisian’s did. Therefore, indulging in an aperitif, or two, before lunch and dinner was a must. My choice of beverage was the same every time, a Kir Royale. I had never heard of the drink before until a lovely lady friend of mine introduced us. It was love at first sip and my loyalty to this particular aperitif was solidified in the city of love. It’s really a simple concoction, a splash of creme de cassis at the bottom of a champagne glass, which is then filled to the top with cool, crisp champagne. To mix it up a bit you can have a Kir, which is creme de cassis mixed with white wine, preferably Chablis, although any dry white wine does the job. I have to admit that I didn’t just indulge in this aperitif in Paris, there was also Avignon, Cannes, Saint-Remy, Arles, Monte Carlo… you get the idea.
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In fact, you don’t use Chablis for Kir (it would be kind of a waste of a good wine). You use bourgogne aligoté to mix with crème de cassis. Aligoté is a very dry, almost acidic kind of wine and the cassis was used to sweeten it. Burgundy region had a surplus of that wine after the second world war and the mayor Kir of Dijon decided to mix it with cassis to serve to visiting delegations and get rid of the surplus at the same time. This is when the drink became popular and changed its name from ‘blanc cassis’ to Kir. In small bistro in france, you will still ask for a blanc cass’, instead of a kir.
Also, when north american use 1 part of cassis for 9 parts of wine, French people put more (3 parts of cassis for 6 parts of wine).
Thanks for all of the information Olivia, much appreciated! I went with a Chablis wine on the recommendation of a friend who said that Aligote can be difficult to find in North American liquor stores, as was the case at my local liquor store, which didn’t have that particular wine.
For sure, if you don’t have Aligoté, Chablis is fine 🙂 Aligoté is pretty easy to find in Ontario! I guess we are lucky on that one!