Name: Kir Apéritif
Total time: 2 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 75 ml Bourgogne Aligoté; 25 ml Crème de cassis; 4 drop Orange flower water; 75 ml Bourgogne Aligoté

Kir Apéritif
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Glass:

Serve in a Goblet glass

Ingredients:
2 ¹⁄₂ fl oz	Bourgogne Aligoté wine white chilled
⁵⁄₆ fl oz	Joseph Cartron Double Crème de Cassis de Bourgogne chilled
4 drop	Orange blossom water / Orange flower water
2 ¹⁄₂ fl oz	Bourgogne Aligoté wine white chilled

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select a GOBLET GLASS.
No garnish to prepare.

How to make:

POUR half the chilled wine into chilled glass.
POUR chilled cassis into glass.
ADD (optional) orange blossom water.
TOP with rest of the chilled wine.

Garnish:

Serve naked, without garnish.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Bourgogne Aligoté wine white, Bourgogne Aligoté wine white - Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Traditionally made 1/3 cassis to 2/3 wine, but that's too sweet for most modern palates. I recommend a ratio of 1 part cassis to between 5 and 7 parts Bourgogne Aligoté white wine. The above formula is 6:1 and at this concentration, the mix of blackcurrant and wine is clean, crisp and not too sweet.

View readers' comments

Variations/similar cocktails:

Kir Royale with champagne in place of Bourgogne Aligoté white wine.

History:

The Kir Apéritif is thought to have first been mixed in 1904 by a waiter called Faivre at the Café George, 42 Rue de Montchapet, Dijon, France. It is named after Canon Félix Kir, who as the Mayor of Dijon promoted the drink by serving at civic functions.
Kir and Kir Royale history

Nutrition:

One serving of Kir Apéritif contains 183 calories

Alcohol content:

0.3 standard drinks
2.47% alc./vol. (4.93° proof)
3.7 grams of pure alcohol

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Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Showing 6 comments for Kir Apéritif.
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Caspian Berggren

14th December 2025 at 15:51

Can anyone confirm the Aligoté made a difference? Because I just made it with Chardonnay and it was okay, fine, but still mostly wine and blackcurrant liqueur. It was delicious, don't get me wrong, but certainly nothing more.

Simon Difford

16th December 2025 at 15:41

Aligoté is a particularly dry wine with high acidity, so it goes particularly well with the rich liqueur.

1 reply

Avery Garnett

19th February 2024 at 16:36

...this is like mixing white wine and ribena and I like it.

Egor Doroshenko

7th May 2022 at 13:02

Oh.... Too sweet for me. Kir 15 ml maximum.

Lee Clarke

16th February 2021 at 09:53

Hi. I’m struggling to find a Bourgogne Aligoté in Lockdown. Is there a similar wine I could substitute? Need to have this towards completing the 258 Hall of Fame! Cheers

Simon Difford

16th February 2021 at 12:45

Hi Lee. I'm now looking to see if I source a good example at an attractive price so I can add to our growing list of products for sale. It's a very flavoursome and acidic wine so balances the rich liqueur brilliantly. Hit the right proportions and this is a delicious afternoon/early evening drink.

Tip Top

23rd October 2020 at 10:59

Ah, Ok! Did not expected that light colour with the amount of Cassis, more like to see in the video, and yes two stages are helpful to mix the concentrated creme de cassis (also different in the video) - will try at the weekend - thanks!

Simon Difford

23rd October 2020 at 12:23

Good point, the video could do with updating. Lighting for pic may have lighted appearance but I make the cocktails according to the recipe to photo.

Tip Top

22nd October 2020 at 20:00

probably double typo - wrong picture, wrong receipt.

Simon Difford

23rd October 2020 at 07:46

No mistake. The wine is poured in two stages in the recipe. And yes, the finished drink should look like the pic. Not to be confused with a Kir Royale