Kir Royale

Cassis first, wine second, no spoon. Stirring a flute is how you lose the mousse and stain the glass. Half an ounce of cassis in a four-ounce pour of wine is enough; a full ounce is a kir for people who do not like wine. Use a real flute or a small wine glass — a coupe lets the Champagne die. If the color is a dark cap at the bottom, you poured too fast; rotate the glass once, gently, and stop.

The wine does the work. A dry Champagne or Crémant — brut, not demi-sec — is the point of Royale. Prosecco works if it is dry; sweet prosecco plus cassis is soda. Lejay or a decent crème de cassis, not a blackcurrant syrup. If your cassis is heavy, drop to ⅓ oz. The still Kir (cassis and white Burgundy) is the original and lower-proof; use Aligoté or a crisp Bourgogne blanc when you do not want bubbles.

Kir is the Dijon aperitif associated with Félix Kir, the mid-century mayor who served blanc-cassis to visitors. Kir Royale is the same idea with Champagne instead of still white wine. We are not attaching a year or a hotel we cannot document. This is the SipSelect Kitchen two-ingredient serve of that traditional aperitif: a little crème de cassis, a lot of dry sparkling wine, in a flute.

Kir

Use ½ oz crème de cassis and 4 oz cold dry white wine — Aligoté or a crisp Burgundy — when you want the original, still, lower-fizz aperitif. Same glass can be a white-wine glass. Use it on a weeknight.

Kir Impérial

Replace the cassis with ½ oz Chambord or a raspberry liqueur when blackcurrant is not on the shelf. Pinker, more perfume. Call it Impérial so you are not pretending it is cassis.