James Bond (Roger Moore) uses Bollinger to woo Dr Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles) in Moonraker.
Even a cursory knowledge of fictional spies suggests the only thing working harder than their witty one-liners and perfectly timed karate chops, are their livers. From Bond to Bourne, secret agents drink like the proverbial fish, and most have expensive taste.
Scotch seems to be a favourite thirst quencher of many a thirsty secret agent, poured from cut crystal decanters, or straight from the bottle whenever the subject of espionage needs to be discussed.
Bond liked to drink anything so long as it was expensive – after all, he wasn't paying for it.
James Bond drinks Black & White Scotch in Fleming's third of the 007 novels, Moonraker (1955). He gets into the Jack Daniels in the novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963), drinks both Jack Daniels and Suntory – Japanese Whisky – in both the novel and film versions of You Only Live Twice (1964/1967). He pours a JD in the film GoldenEye (1995) and opts for Talisker Scotch in the films The World is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002).
Bond (Roger Moore) works his charms on Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts) in A View To A Kill.
By the time he appears in the 2012 movie Skyfall he's gone upmarket, reaching for a bottle of Macallan Fine Oak 10 Year Old to ease his nerves. The spy with the licence to kill even manages to wet his lips with a 1962 Fine and Rare Vintage Macallan during a deadly shootout on a villain's private island. Earlier this year a bottle of the Fine and Rare, signed by Skyfall stars Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem and Bond girl Berenice Marlohe, raised around $16,000 for charity at auction.
One of the most successful television spy dramas of recent years is BBC's Spooks. The main character is the fictional head of the counter terrorism department of MI5, Harry Pearce (played by Peter Firth). Pearce is a big Scotch drinker, and his preferred tipple is Ardbeg Scotch distilled on the remote Scottish island of Islay (unfortunately for Firth, the props department insists on substituting the Scotch with dry ginger ale).
It isn't all elegant decanters, however. John Le Carre's famous spy, George Smiley (played brilliantly by Gary Oldman in the 2011 film, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), cracks the seal on a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red and drinks it from a tea cup.
The way to the heart of a Bond girl (Britt Ekland) is clearly through champagne in The Man With The Golden Gun.
And while Simon Templar was not exactly a spy (in fact more a modern Robin Hood, but 'spyish' in a stylish, sneaky kind of way), the Saint – created by author Leslie Charteris and published between 1928 and 1963 – enjoys a wee dram himself; specifically of Peter Dawson whisky.
It's not always Scotch that our favourite spooks turn to. Those of us who grew up during the Cold War might remember the popular TV series, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and its uber-spies Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughan) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum). In one episode that borders on pure sacrilege, they used a couple of bottles of Grand Marnier as a molotov cocktail bomb – not before having a swig themselves, of course.
However, no spy has punished his brain cells so mercilessly or frequently with alcohol as James Bond. “I take a ridiculous pleasure in what I eat and drink. It comes partly from being a bachelor, but mostly from a habit of taking a lot of trouble over details,” says 007 to Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale. He then goes on to order a Taittinger '45, while the sommelier recommends a Blanc de Brut 1943.
Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) often enjoys a Scotch in Spooks.
Bond liked to drink anything so long as it was expensive – after all, he wasn't paying for it, the British taxpayer was. It's not surprising considering his creator Ian Fleming had a bottle-of-gin-a-day habit, before turning to Old-Grand-Dad bourbon mixed with still water.
Obviously 007 had a penchant for bubbles, and neither he nor the Bond franchise seemed at all loyal to any particular brand. As well as the aforementioned Taittinger, Bond has enjoyed Pol Roger, Krug, Veuve Clicquot and Dom Perignon.
Dom has long been a favourite tipple of Bond's, although it wasn't until the third novel, Moonraker, that he first drinks it (two bottles of Dom Perignon '46). Dom has also appeared in several of the Bond movies: He drinks a '55 in Dr No; says he prefers the '53 in Goldfinger; opts for the '55 in Thunderball; the '59 in You Only Live Twice; the '57 in On Her Majesty's Secret Service; the '64 in Man With the Golden Gun; and mentions the '52 in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Daniel Craig downs a martini in Quantum of Solace.
However it was Bollinger champagne with which 007 became inextricably linked. Ironically while this kicked off the era of commercial product placement, Bollinger’s appearance in the Bond films (usually when seduction is immiment) has never been a financial arrangement. It came about as the result of a long-standing family friendship between producer Cubby Broccoli and Bollinger president Guy Bizot. Fleming’s character is introduced to Bolly in the 1956 novel Diamonds Are Forever, when Tiffany Case has a half-bottle sent to his cabin on the Queen Elizabeth.
It was in the films that Bollinger really gets some serious screen-time. The champers, a favourite of the Brits, has appeared in every film from Live and Let Die (1973) to the recent Quantum of Solace. Bond's favourite Bollinger seems to be the prestigious La Grande Annee, produced by the champagne house only when there is an exceptional harvest. It appears in Goldeneye (the 1988 vintage), Tomorrow Never Dies (the 1989), The World is Not Enough (the 1990), Die Another Day (the 1995, plus a Bollinger '61), and Casino Royale (the 1990).
Being used to their spy having such expensive taste, it's little surprise some Bond fans were appalled when Daniel Craig reached for a Heineken in the movie Skyfall. Many thought it wasn't becoming of 007 to partake of such a humble beverage as beer. And yet, it wasn't the first time Bond had enjoyed a lager. He drinks a Red Stripe Jamaican Lager in the novel, The Man with the Golden Gun, has a stein of Lowenbrau in the short story, The Living Daylights, and in the novel Gold-finger, and he chugs down a Miller High Life at a roadside restaurant in the novel Diamonds are Forever.
It is not beer or champagne however, but the martini with which the world associates James Bond. The literary 007 preferred his martinis made using Wolfschmidt Polish vodka, or Beefeater or Gordon's gin, and served ice-cold. He orders his first in the 1953 novel Casino Royale: “Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large, thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?”
Kina Lillet was an obscure wine aperitif, strongly flavoured with the bitter taste of quinine. We really wouldn't recommend it.
The 007 of the silver screen popularised the vodka martini across the planet, and certainly gave a boost to the sales of Smirnoff and Cinzano. It was in 1962's Dr No, when Sean Connery is handed a Smirnoff martini 'shaken not stirred”, that film history was made. By the time Die Another Day hit the screens in 2002, Finlandia vodka was the product placement of choice.
As to the question of whether a martini should be shaken or stirred; Daniel Craig says it best in Casino Royale: “Do I look like I give a damn?”
The Designing 007, 50 years of Bond Style is currently showing at the Melbourne Museum until February 23, 10am-5pm daily (from December 27, Fridays and Saturdays until 9pm. Closed Christmas Day).
