Lillet Blanc & Lillet Rouge
by Kevin R. Kosar

Though I have been editing and writing for AlcoholReviews.com a short time, doing so has provided numerous humerous and peculiar incidents.  This past Friday I was besieged by phone calls from friends out of state.  There was no one reason for their calls, they all just happened to ring the same morning.  While I was gabbing with an old buddy in Michigan, the door bell rang.  I assumed it was the telephone man, coming to install a new line to my office.  I was ill dressed- jeans, a sweatshirt and my slippers, cordless phone tucked between my ear and shoulder.

I stepped into the hall to see the phone man.  Instead I found a sharply dressed, mustached young man looking suave yet a little baffled.  Meanwhile, Polish curses came from the floor above, where workmen were gutting an upstairs apartment.

"Keh-veen?  Keh-veen?  Yes?" he offered in French-tinged English.

I looked at him, now I was confused.  I nodded and he came toward me and I then saw he was carrying a beautiful Lillet bag.  Turns out he was sent from his office at Stern Communications in Midtown Manhattan to the office of AlcoholReveiws.com in chic Williamsburg.  Expecting to find an office, he found me, dressed like a schlub, blabbering into a cordless phone and standing in a hallway filled with building materials.  He must have wondered what sort of hoax this whole operation.

Anyway, he was quite kind, and the bag he brought contained two bottles of Lillet, two aperitif Lillet glasses, an orange, and a press kit.  I was tickled and felt like a brute for not inviting him in to hammer back the Lillet.  But there was work to do, new office furniture to arrange, and phonecalls to make and take.  Should I see him again, whatever his name was, I'll buy him a drink.
Lillet (pronounced Lee-Lay) is a fortified wine drank as an aperitif. That is, it is consumed a half-hour or so before a meal.  An aperitif is bitter, and this bitterness stokes the appetite.  Sadly, the aperitif is scarcely known in this country, where these days folks shove food in their mouths as the drive or dash down the street.  Oh to slow down America, so we might actually have the time to eat at a leisurely pace but also to incorporate the pre-meal aperitif into our ways.

Lillet comes in two forms, blanc (white) and rouge (red).  It's made in Bordeaux, that region in France renown for its excellent wines and can brag that it is the only aperitif from Bordeaux.  Both Lillets cost $12 per bottle are 18% alcohol by volume, which means you could get bombed drinking it, but why do so?  
Lillet Blanc is a medium color white wine, made from sauvignon blanc and semillon grapes.  that noses of honey and orange and a hint of mint. While the nose may lead you to expect a sweet dessert wine taste, in fact Lillet Blanc with taste and a firm bitterness, which suddenly diminishes, leaving a lingering trace of orange, honey and bitterness on the palate. (Rating ****1/4)

Lillet Rouge is ruby red, squeezed from merlot and cabernet sauvignon grapes.  It noses and tastes of grape (like grape soda), vanilla, and orange.  It bittern notes strikes me as more substantial and lasting, hence, those new to aperitifs might well begin with Lillet Blanc and then graduate to Lillet Rouge.  or, you might well mix four ounces of Lillet Rouge with four ounces of club soda and adorn with a slice of orange to make a fizzy aperitif.  (Rating ****)