Kir Cocktail

The Kir is a very simple cocktail that just mixes White Wine with Creme de Cassis. This is the base of a number of similar cocktails including the Kir Royal (Champagne and Creme de Cassis) and the Tarantino (Lager and Creme de Cassis). There's also bigger variations on the Creme de Cassis with cocktails like the Kir Imperial (Raspberry Liqueur instead of Creme de Cassis). Kind of like how you can go down the rabbit hole with the Moscow Mule, you can do the same thing with the Kir and its endless variations. All that being said, the original Kir recipe (this one!) is the basis for all those variations. So if you like the combination of some sort of fruit liqueur with a lighter flavour, get expirimenting to see what variations on the Kir you can come up with. It's almost better than using our cocktail generator to find cocktail recipes!

Total Time 3

Servings 1 cocktail

Ingredients

90 mL White Wine
15 mL Creme de Cassis

Instructions

Pour your Creme de Cassis into a Wine glass.
Follow the Creme de Cassis with your White Wine. Allow them to mix naturally.
Serve and drink!

Notes

As you can see in the recipe, the Kir Cocktail can't be any easier to make. Just pour in the two ingredients and drink it. There's no to even stir anything! Simple cocktails like this are just lovely for cocktail lovers who just want to whip something up quickly. Simple recipes like this also just go to show that you don't need a lot of different ingredients to introduce complexities to a cocktail, just let the basics do the work for you. Although White Wine is often seen as lighter than Red, it can be fairly complex in character, just adding more to the cocktail. With this in mind, avoid the temptation to add too much Creme de Cassis, even if you're a big fan of the liqueur; only a little bit is added for a reason. Of course you're more than welcome to adjust the ratios in this recipe to suit your taste, but make the adjustments slowly and methodically. Be patient and it will pay off!

We Have a Few More Things to Say About the Kir Cocktail

You’ll notice in the recipe that we haven’t specified a type of White Wine, however, the Wine used traditionally a White Wine from Burgundy, particularly a Chardonnay. That being said, there’s no hard and fast rule to this. We would suggest, at the very least, to use a drier White Wine. The Creme de Cassis adds a bit of sweetness to the cocktail, so combining it with a sweeter White may ruin things. But, of course, that’s up to your tastes.

While we don’t have a lot of information to confirm it, this cocktail was likely named after Felix Kir, who was mayor of Dijon in Burgundy following World War II. While the cocktail existed before Kir was a mayor, he was well known for serving it to other politicians and visitors. We’re not sure if this was a diplomatic effort to show off products from his region, or a way to improve White Wine of the region which, at the time, wasn’t the highest of quality.

Can I make a larger batch of the Kir Cocktail simply by increasing everything?

Yes, you should be able to increase the volume of all the ingredients and make a larger batch. It would be a simple as just mixing everything in a jug or decanter and then serving the drink out of that.

Can I pre-make the Kir to serve later?

Yes, since this cocktail is just two ingredients, it’s easy to mix it early then store it in the refrigerator for later. This could be a good idea if you’re having guests over and you want them to be able to have a drink on arrival.

Is there a good time to enjoy a Kir Cocktail?

Traditionally the Kir Cocktail is enjoyed before eating, acting as an apéritif, but you can really enjoy it any time you feel like a glass of White Wine with a little extra something to it. White Wine is a excellent warm weather drink, especially when the days are long and the sun is shining. This is a great recipe to whip up when you have a few friends around for Summer drinks.

On a slightly more pessimistic note, the Kir is also a great cocktail for disguising and otherwise poor bottle of White Wine. If, for whatever reason you have a mediocre bottle you don’t want to go to waste, chuck some Creme de Cassis in it to improve things!

How strong is the Kir Cocktail?

This is a nice an light cocktail. Really, it’s pretty much just a glass of wine! The Creme de Cassis has roughly the same alcohol content of the Wine, so you’re not really adding or taking any away from the bit you’re throwing in. And that’s kind of the point of a cocktail like this. It’s not supposed to be flashy, over the top, or terribly boozy. It’s just supposed to be light and easy to drink. So enjoy a Kir Cocktail in the afternoon without much fear of it ruining your evening.

What music would you put with the Kir?

While the recipe has likely been around since at least the early 1800’s, the cocktail didn’t receive the name Kir until after World War II, thanks to the mayor we mentioned above. Because of this, we want to go with a style of music from the late 1940’s or early 1950’s. Modern popular music (i.e. Rock n’ Roll) was just starting to come about in those days. It was a lot lighter than what we have today, but still had an edge to it (relatively speaking). Kind of like this cocktail. It’s light, but the Creme de Cassis gives it some interest. So why not put on some early Rock n’ Roll while sipping away at one of these cocktails. It’s not necessarily a perfect match, but the two suit themselves very well.

Keep the cocktails flowing!

After you finish your cocktail, have a look at some of the other recipes we have on the site. We’ve arranged everything into easy sections base on style, and below are some of sections we think you’ll like the best.

Top 15 easy cocktail recipes: we like the Kir Cocktail because it’s super easy to make. Have a look at the easy cocktails that we think are the best!

All low alcohol cocktail recipes: low alcohol cocktails are nice because you don’t have to worry about going too overboard. Have a look at the other low alcohol recipes we have.

All easy cocktail recipes: or, going back to the easy cocktails, feel free to browse all the easy cocktail recipes we have on the site. There are plenty.