Kir Royale

A Simple Sparkling Wine Cocktail

Kir Royale is a super easy and delicious cocktail. With only two ingredients, Crème de Cassis and Sparkling wine, this cocktail is easy to make in large volumes, which makes it the perfect welcome drink at big parties or gatherings. And since it’s made with sparkling wine, this cocktail is also a great choice for New Year’s Eve.

Kir Royal Cocktail

Ingredients

Sparkling Wine

We recommend Prosecco, but whatever sparkling wine that fits your palate will work. We recommend something in the middle of the dryness spectrum, so brut, semi dry or dry, depending on your personal taste.

9 parts

Crème de Cassis

Any brand will do. The ratio here is a guideline and can be adjusted depending on your personal preference. Increase the Cassis to make the cocktail fruitier and sweeter.

1 part

Instructions

Pour Sparkling Wine

Pour well chilled sparkling wine into a champagne glass. If possible, have the glass chilled also. As always, when pouring carbonated liquid, tilt the glass slightly and pour carefully to preserve as much carbonation as possible, just as if you were pouring draft beer. Do not measure out your sparkling wine in a jigger since this will heavily reduce carbonation. Instead, pour it directly into the glass. If you want to be more precise with your measurements, then measure out the volume of your glassware beforehand.

Pour Crème de Cassis

Pour Crème de Cassis on top of the sparkling wine. Crème de Cassis has a much higher sugar content than sparkling wine and will, therefore, layer at the bottom if you pour it before the wine. By pouring the Cassis afterwards, the ingredients will get better mixed, which reduces or even eliminates the need to stir the cocktail. By stirring less, or not at all, more carbonation is preserved. If possible, have the Cassis chilled as well. This doesn’t make a huge difference, but it does help make the cocktail slightly colder when served, which doesn’t only create a more pleasant drinking experience, but it also helps the cocktail to keep more carbonation, since colder liquids keep Co2 more stable.

Stir (only if needed)

If the two ingredients didn’t mix properly, give the cocktail a very light stir. To avoid reducing carbonation, only do this if needed.

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Ingredient #1

Sparkling Wine

Bottega Gold Prosecco

While this cocktail is traditionally made with champagne, we actually prefer to make it with Prosecco. Bottega Gold is a wonderful Prosecco with floral notes, hints fresh orchard fruit and with a gentle touch of citrus. These qualities work great with the blackcurrant in Kir Royale.
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Ingredient #2

Crème de Cassis

Giffard’s Crème de cassis

Like any other French fruit liqueur, Crème de Cassis is made in many different ways, with the base spirit ranging from anything in between Cognac and Wine. There really is no right or wrong here, so choose whatever Crème de Cassis you like. We think that Giffard’s hits a nice balance for the cocktail, and it is widely available.
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Ingredient #3
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Ingredient #4
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History

Kir Royale is the sparkling edition of the cocktail Kir. Kir is the same formula as the Kir Royale except that normal white wine is used instead of sparkling wine. Both cocktails are named after Félix Kir, who was the Mayor of the French city Dijon between 1945 and 1968. Félix Kir was known for serving a mix of Crème De Cassis with the local wine, laying the foundation for this cocktail. Today, Crème de Cassis is produced in many places around the world but traditionally this liqueur was a specialty of the Burgundy area, and especially in the commune of Dijon. The bottles still produced in the commune of Dijon nowadays will be specifically labeled Crème de Cassis de Dijon.

Flavor profile

The flavor of this cocktail will depend on the choice of sparkling wine and the ratio between it and the Cassis. If you stick to our recommendations of picking a semi dry prosecco and using the 9 to 1 ratio, this cocktail will have a pleasant but not overwhelming sweetness. The Cassis will be allowed to shine through but won’t completely overpower. Straight up it will present you with the fruity flavor of blackcurrant, but the back palate and the aftertaste will primarily be dominated by the sparkling wine. While this is a cocktail where you can play around with the ratios, more than the majority of other cocktails, we prefer this particular one as it allows the Cassis to be a very apparent part of the cocktail, but without drowning the taste of the wine.

Recipe rating
3.5/5 - (4 votes)

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