Problem
What is kir? What's the difference between kir and kir royale? Why is it called Kir?
Answers
Kir is made from a dry white wine plus sweeter creme de cassis, blackcurrant liqueur which adds colour. Kir royale is made instead with a drink such as champagne with bubbles. Somehow the bubbles are a distraction and I always find that kir royale is slightly disappointing. Plain Kir made from Aligote has a stronger flavour and is as the Coca Cola ads say 'the real thing'.
Cassis
In France an authentic kir will be a mixture of Alight dry white wine and creme to cassis, a sweet liquor, blackcurrant being the ingredient, a faint flavour, and the colour. Add more of the cassis to get a stronger colour.
Story Of Factory Visit And Buying Cassis
We first stopped in Dijon, probably in the late nineteen seventies or eighties, driving south to ski in Chamonix or visit my parents who spent winter at their one bedroom flat in Southern Spain in Marbella. On the long drive from Spain back to the UK a stop in Dijon was a welcome lunch break.
We read about cassis and saw the signs and map and guidebook references and went to visit the Cassis factory. Cassis is French for blackcurrant. Creme de Cassis is the drink, the spirit (strong alcohol content).
From my visit to France I remember clearly being told that Canon Kir was the man who made the drink popular. Not so long ago either. He died in the late Nineteen Sixties.
For many years we would make a point of stopping in Dijon to buy cassis or Alight or both at the local supermarket or factory, looking for the best price. Alight was hard to find in England. If you found it, the price was higher than what you would pay in France. Also there was the fun of opening the new bottle and telling neighbours of friends the story of how and where we had bought it.
When we ran out of Alight we tried making kir with other wines. The result just wasn't the same. After that when we ordered kir in a restaurant, if it tasted wrong, we knew it had not been made with Aligote. The first time that happened I asked to see the bottle afterwards. Once alerted to the problem, I started asking if they had alight, or which wine they used, before ordering the kir.
Oddly, at first the best place to be of getting a kir was on the British ferry across to France. I suppose they had many French passengers, or passengers from Britain such as ourselves who were keen on drinking authentic French drinks.
French Kir and Cassis
For a detailed look at the story of French kir from Dijon, in the Burgundy region, where the ingredient of kir, creme de cassis is made, see:What is kir? What's the difference between kir and kir royale? Why is it called Kir?
Answers
Kir is made from a dry white wine plus sweeter creme de cassis, blackcurrant liqueur which adds colour. Kir royale is made instead with a drink such as champagne with bubbles. Somehow the bubbles are a distraction and I always find that kir royale is slightly disappointing. Plain Kir made from Aligote has a stronger flavour and is as the Coca Cola ads say 'the real thing'.
Cassis
In France an authentic kir will be a mixture of Alight dry white wine and creme to cassis, a sweet liquor, blackcurrant being the ingredient, a faint flavour, and the colour. Add more of the cassis to get a stronger colour.
Story Of Factory Visit And Buying Cassis
We first stopped in Dijon, probably in the late nineteen seventies or eighties, driving south to ski in Chamonix or visit my parents who spent winter at their one bedroom flat in Southern Spain in Marbella. On the long drive from Spain back to the UK a stop in Dijon was a welcome lunch break.
We read about cassis and saw the signs and map and guidebook references and went to visit the Cassis factory. Cassis is French for blackcurrant. Creme de Cassis is the drink, the spirit (strong alcohol content).
From my visit to France I remember clearly being told that Canon Kir was the man who made the drink popular. Not so long ago either. He died in the late Nineteen Sixties.
For many years we would make a point of stopping in Dijon to buy cassis or Alight or both at the local supermarket or factory, looking for the best price. Alight was hard to find in England. If you found it, the price was higher than what you would pay in France. Also there was the fun of opening the new bottle and telling neighbours of friends the story of how and where we had bought it.
When we ran out of Alight we tried making kir with other wines. The result just wasn't the same. After that when we ordered kir in a restaurant, if it tasted wrong, we knew it had not been made with Aligote. The first time that happened I asked to see the bottle afterwards. Once alerted to the problem, I started asking if they had alight, or which wine they used, before ordering the kir.
Oddly, at first the best place to be of getting a kir was on the British ferry across to France. I suppose they had many French passengers, or passengers from Britain such as ourselves who were keen on drinking authentic French drinks.
French Kir and Cassis
http://www.pressreader.com/uk/france/20151201/281543699787229
Driving Through France
One of the things I most enjoyed about driving through France was the brown signs adverstiting the main attractions as you approached every city or small town on the motorway. You could immediately see whether the place had attractions you wanted to visit.
Now the rest of the world is starting to catch up, but slowly. America and France are the best places for signposting attractions for motorists.
You can get a lot of good information from the French tourist board in London. But be aware that the phone number for tourists is a premium rate number.
What France does best is list all the attractions on a sign before you reach a city, so you can decide whether you want to stop and turn off at the next exit.
America's great strength is the way that individual attractions give a series of tempting signs. After you have passed the last exit beurre the attraction, you get signs saying, You have missed ... and Turn back here to visit ... I used to find this amusing. It felt like you were having a conversation with a smiling sales person.
Cassis - the town
Cassis and Kir are from Dijon in France but if you do a google search for Cassis and tours you will find there is also a small fishing town or village called Cassis with vineyards.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more blog posts on wine.
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