KIR

By Jennifer Campbell

	There are myriad variations of the kir, the most famous being the fizzy Kir Royale, which trades champagne for white wine. You could also sub in any number of fruity liqueurs. Mix cassis with a lightweight red, like Beaujolais, and you’ve got a Cardinal (named for their red robes) or a Communard (named for the “Red Menace”). Oddly, there’s another communist moniker in the Double K (white wine, cassis and vodka), which was created to commemorate the meeting between Felix Kir and Nikita Khrushchev.

Kir, the white wine and crème de cassis aperitif that’s a fixture of French cafes, rose to prominence in Dijon, a city more famous for it’s mustard.

History
Legend has it that Canon Félix Kir, a priest in the northern French province of Burgundy, created blanc-cassis (as kir was originally called) as a wartime necessity. Forced to drink the poor quality wine that the battles and pillaging of WWII had wrought, he found that a dollop of the locally-made blackcurrant liqueur, crème de cassis, made the plonk palatable.

Canon Kir was already well known as a hero of the French Resistance. After a group of German soldiers absconded with the local wine, he organized a gang to derail the Berlin-bound train and recover the barrels. For his efforts, Kir was elected mayor of Dijon in 1945, a position he held for more than 20 years. The cassis concoction became known as un kir in honour of the canon’s wartime deeds.

Well, that’s sort of how it happened. Blanc-cassis was actually popular in France long before Félix Kir got his hands on it. In fact, it became a favourite not long after Dijon distilling house Lejay-Legoute created crème de cassis in 1841. During his time as mayor, Kir served the drink at hôtel de ville (city hall) eceptions as a post-war promotion of local products. He granted the use of his name to Lejay-Legoute, who already made a pre-mixed Vin blanc cassis de Dijon. The house trademarked un kir in 1952. Other local houses tried to use the name as well, but in 1992, after a twelve-year battle, the French court of appeal granted exclusive rights for Lejay-Legoute to make the drink and use the name.

Serving
Ideally, you should drink a kir at some sunny sidewalk café, but barring that, here’s how to make it:
For the traditional kir, pour one part crème de cassis in the bottom of a glass and top with four parts white wine. No mixing. No stirring. No garnish. Cassis is intensely sweet, so play with the proportions to see what you like. You can even give it a stir. (We won’t tell.) Use a light, inexpensive wine (delicate flavours will just disappear behind the liqueur) – a Bourgogne Aligoté is ideal, but an unoaked Chardonnay will do the trick.