Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, the American spouse of King Edward VIII, was a great admirer of Lillet. She introduced it to high society, particularly at Fauchon, and into the upper-class hotels where she stayed frequently. [ citation needed] In the 1970s, the grandson of the Lillet brothers removed the Kina and rebranded the product to Lillet only. Kina had become a generic term for beverages containing quinine and seemed superfluous. In the small town of Podensac just south of Bordeaux, the story of Lillet (pronounced lee-LAY) begins with two brothers: Paul and Raymond Lillet. Throughout their lives the Lillet brothers earned a living working as traders in fine wines, liqueurs, and spirits. As time went on, the two developed a new interest in distilling spirits, which led them to create the La Maison Lillet company in 1872. At its start, the Maison’s primary focus was on producing fruit liquors. However, 15 years later and with the introduction of Pierre (Raymond Lillet’s grandson) to the family business, La Maison Lillet began producing Kina Lillet, the brand’s first liqueur distinctly made with white wine from Bordeaux. Lillet Rosé is a blend of all of the grapes used for the Blanc and the Rouge, but unlike its predecessors it has 11 different cordials making the recipe more complex and the development more time consuming. You can’t rush greatness. Lillet is aged in oak barrels from the Tronçais Forest. The two brothers, Raymond and Paul Lillet, established the Lillet brand in 1872. They got the idea to make a white aperitif wine from a doctor who traveled to Brazil for Louis XIV, where he came across the bitter-flavored quinine that is contained in the bark of the cinchona tree.

Though it is made with white wine and flavored with fruit liquors, the bitter flavor and the Kina namesake of the original 1887 release come from its main ingredient: quinine. At the time, quinine was used as a medication to treat malaria. At the end of the 19th century, people developed a great fear of illness as a consequence of the discoveries made by Louis Pasteur (1822–1895). Nevertheless, "Wine", Pasteur said, "can be considered with good reason as the most healthful and the most hygienic of all beverages". As a result, tonic wines (with quinine) became very popular as quinine was used to fight fevers and ease malaria symptoms. [ citation needed] The Vesper Martini is a drink known from film and tv, invented by Bond author Ian Fleming. It consists of vodka, gin, and Lillet Blanc. This twist on the classic Martini can is amazingly rich and full-bodied. Participation in trade exhibitions in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nantes, Quimper and Clermont-Ferrand [1] :243 In 1872, the Lillet brothers founded their company La Maison Lilletin the small village of Podensac near Bordeaux. Merely 15 years later, they started producing a fortified and aromatized wine naming it Kina Lillet.

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Lillet launch on transatlantic liners, with the claim: "Kina-Lillet & Sauternes Lillet can be obtained on all steamers of the Cie Transatlantique. It should always be served iced" [1] :57 In 1872, the brothers Paul and Raymond Lillet, distillers and merchants of wines and spirits, founded their company La Maison Lillet in Podensac, south of Bordeaux, France. The idea of making aperitifs in Bordeaux came from Father Kermann, a doctor who left Brazil at the beginning of Louis XVI's reign. He returned to France and made Bordeaux his home, where he created liqueurs and fortifiers using herbs like quinine. During that time, Bordeaux became one of the most important places for the European wine business. [1] :13–29 It was also France's main harbour for products imported from the Caribbean islands.

Lillet Blanc (1986–present): A sweeter variant of the white-wine-based version with reduced quinine content. It replaced Kina Lillet. Lillet falls into a very specific category of beverage, aromatized wine-based aperitif. This style of aperitif is specifically classified to differentiate it from other wine-based aperitifs such as vermouth, because they are made with aromatized wine. Although related to vermouth, aromatized wine-based aperitifs are distinctly flavored with botanicals including herbs, spices, and fruits, but typically do not contain wormwood or the wormwood-like flavors associated with vermouth. Lillet uniquely has no herbs and is instead predominantly fortified with orange cordials. Lillet shares an ingredient with tonic water. In the Rougeur, Franky Marshall stirs Lillet Rouge with two types of amari (Averna and Cappelletti) plus cherry liqueur for a drink that’s subtly fruity on the front with a pleasantly bitter finish. More Recipes →They added Blanc to the brand name to capitalize on the fact that most products on the market were still red aperitifs. To serve people who prefer red over white, they released Lillet Rouge in 1962. In 2011, they followed it up with Lillet Rose. What Else Can You Make with Lillet? Lillet Dry (1920–?): A drier formula created for the British market. Some [ who?] consider it the Kina Lillet mentioned by Ian Fleming's character James Bond when he created the Vesper Martini. Find sources: "Lillet"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( December 2018) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Lillet Rouge (1962–present): A red-wine-based liqueur first suggested by the American wine merchant and importer Michael Dreyfus, one of the first to import Lillet into the US

The Tronçais Forest is prized for its oak trees that are used to make barrels for Cognac and Bordeaux wines. The oak from this forest is known to have a tighter wood grain due to a water deficiency that occurs in the summers. It is also less tannic than other oaks and contains more lignin, which results in a slightly less woody flavor imparted during aging. Lillet prides itself in being a sustainable brand. Lillet is the preferred drink of serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the series of books written by Thomas Harris.

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in the first Ian Fleming James Bond novel Casino Royale, Bond invents a Kina Lillet martini, which he named the " Vesper" after his love interest in the story: Made from a blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot grapes, Lillet Rouge is fortified with lemon and orange brandies and quinine, the latter of which acts as a bittering agent. It was introduced to the market in 1962 by Pierre Lillet as a ruby-hued attempt to double down on the success of its predecessor, Lillet Blanc, which had become famous in the 20th century thanks to a number of celebrity endorsements (among them, those from the Duchess of Windsor and Ian Fleming, whose James Bond famously enjoyed it shaken into a Vesper.) The blend of sweetness, citrus, slight bitterness, and floral-herbal notes make Lillet Blanc extremely versatile. Yet, you can make it even more flavorsome by infusing it with aromatic ingredients like rosemary, thyme, basil, or chamomile.

Lillet is made of 85% winefrom the Bordeaux region, 15% macerated liqueurs, as well as herbs and spices. That template applies to Lillet Blanc but also to the other two expressions: Lillet Rouge and Rosé. The base wine for Lillet Blanc is made of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon grapes.To improve the quality and sustainability [ citation needed] of the Lillet recipe, in 1985, Lillet was reformulated, [2] after close work with the Bordeaux University's Institute of Oenology, applying modern oenology. [ citation needed] Both the quinine bitterness and corresponding sweetness were reduced. In 1962, Pierre Lillet, grandson of Raymond, keen to capitalize on America's growing taste for red wine, created Lillet Rouge for the American market. [ citation needed] Like all types of wine, Lillet will start to oxidize as it is exposed to oxygen in the air. But since it is an aromatized wine-based aperitif with a higher alcohol by volume (ABV) than most wine (Lillet contains 17 percent ABV) the process will happen a bit slower than that of an average wine ( the ABV range of unfortified wines is 5.5 to 16 percent, with an average of 11.6 percent). That said, it is best practice to keep Lillet stored in the refrigerator to ensure its freshness lasts. La Maison Lillet is open to visitors.