The Champagnes of James Bond

The image of James Bond may vary from film to film – but this agent’s passion for champagne as his favourite ‘weapon of seduction’ remains constant throughout his adventures. Back in the 1960s, British secret agent James Bond 007’s fast-living, champagne-sipping lifestyle quickly captured the world’s imagination and he became one of the defining icons of pop culture that, just like champagne, has miraculously maintained its popularity into the 21st century, despite many imitators and detractors. From the first novel Casino Royale (1958) through to his twelfth and final novel The Man With The Golden Gun (1964), author Ian Fleming’s whole spy series oozed guns, gadgets, girls and gripping story lines (colourfully described as “full of sex, snobbery and sadism” by Sunday Times journalist John Pearson who worked with Fleming), all washed down with lashings of the finest champagnes…pure escapist hedonism at its best. Learn more about James’s favourite flutes of fizz in this short excerpt from NEW soon to be published title

“Champagne – Behind the Bubbles”

Secret Agent of Seduction

When the 007 film adaptation series was launched in 1962 (Dr No), ‘Bond’ quickly became an international household name and the franchise has since grossed more than US$4 billion, placing it ahead of Harry Potter as the highest grossing film series ever. In 2006, the 21st film installment (Casino Royale starring sixth Bond Daniel Craig) was even released in China. To work as adventure stories, each of the Bond films needs to resonate with society’s contemporary concerns, so 20th century themes like the space race, the cold war, the energy crisis, nuclear confrontation, and even women’s liberation, have all been played out against a backdrop of the world’s most exotic locations. It is estimated that at least half of the world’s population has seen a James Bond movie. In the same manner, throughout the pages of world history – but especially so in James Bond’s lifetime, champagne has been the must-have accessory and ‘go to’ habit for all of us when celebrating our greatest triumphs in life or consoling ourselves in our darkest hour.

Bond’s meteoric rise to fame combined with his aspirational lifestyle and ability to constantly reinvent himself to meet the requirements of modern audiences, closely mirrors the colourful history of champagne itself, and so offers the perfect viewpoint from which to begin an exploration of this fascinating world of fizz that already spans 17 centuries.

Powers of persuasion

Ian Fleming was well-known for plying women with champagne and sausages as his preferred seduction technique. Champagne Taittinger was a personal favourite and often featured in the novels, but did not make an appearance in the first movie. When Bond confronted the evil genius Dr No in his underground island lair, it was at the dinner table using a bottle of prestige cuvée champagne from the world’s most successful house, Champagne Möet & Chandon. Just as Bond is about to smash said bottle over a henchman’s head, his opponent Dr No exclaims in shock, “That’s a bottle of Dom Perignon 1955. It would be a pity to waste it”! Ever the superior connoisseur, “I prefer the Dom 53 myself,” quips Bond in reply.

Following the release of Dr No (1962), the producers decided that perhaps Dom Perignon was “too American” in taste for a British spy, and so in the second movie From Russia With Love (1963), Bond favours a rather more rare prestige champagne from the smaller family house of Taittinger. In this second adventure, James Bond doesn’t even appear in the film until 15 minutes into the action. When we first catch sight of him on a sunny river bank, he’s busy seducing an attractive woman in a punt, with a conveniently dangled bottle of Taittinger Comtes de Champagne chilling in the river attached to his big toe by a piece of string. He later phones the office from his car and tells them he’s been ‘reviewing’ an old case. By the thd movie installment, (Goldfinger, 1964), James Bond had exploded as a global phenomenon and his annual screen adventures had become big budget movie extravaganzas, where gadgets, gizmos and souped-up cars began to take precedence over plot lines. But at least one ray of hope remained for hard core fans of Fleming’s original fictional spy – with every movie adventure, Bond becomes more particular about his champagne…

In Goldfinger “There are some things that just aren’t done,” he admonishes to Auric Goldfinger’s private secretary, having seduced her with a champagne dinner served in bed, when he notices that the ‘passion juice’ has lost its chill. Its “like drinking Dom Perignon 1953 above the temperature of 38ºF. That’s like listening to the Beatles without ear muffs”. By the time of James’s fifth secret mission where he goes undercover in Japan (You Only Live Twice, 1967), even his enemy is civilised enough to offer him a glass of Dom Perignon 1959 in the morning. So we’re not at all surprised to hear Tiger Tanaka, Head of Japanese Secret Service, comment admiringly, “For a European, Bond san, you are exceptionally well cultivated”. This merely confirmed in fans’ eyes what they already suspected: drinking champagne makes you sophisticated and gets you laid!

In the 1990s, the tried and tested spy formula needed to be modernised to reflect changes in society. This decade heralds the rise of third wave feminism (concerned with race, social class, sexuality and the glass ceiling) so, unsurprisingly, the head of the British Secret Service is now a woman who has the temerity to call Bond (to his face!) a “dinosaur and relic of the Cold War”. Meanwhile, the modern day Bond (played by Pierce Brosnan in the 1990s and now Daniel Craig) is a confirmed Champagne Bollinger fanatic. When in female company, Bond typically orders Bollinger Grande Année, which is perhaps why his preferred house often describes itself as “The champagne of James Bond”.

MOET & CHANDON Dom Perignon

KEY CHARACTERISTICS: Exquisite balance, elegance and creaminess, very fine, tiny bubbles and complex flavours.

BLEND: 50% Chardonnay/50% Pinot Noir. (Grapes come from five Grand Cru villages in the Cote des Blancs/Montagne de Reims and one Premier Cru village, Hautvilliers. The wine is aged for a minimum of six years in Möet’s cellars before release).

Inspired by a talented English wine publicist working for M&C’s London agency, Simon Brothers, ‘Möet & Chandon Cuvée Dom Perignon’ was the first luxury champagne of modern times and a stroke of pure marketing genius. ‘DP’ is a marvellously seamless blend of black and white grapes, a medium-weight champagne that stresses finesse and balance rather than power. With age, it takes on totally seductive aromas of toast, coffee and honey, developing one of the most intriguing scents in champagne. According to renowned champagne expert Tom Stevenson, “all vintages need at least 12 years’ aging to mature Dom Perignon’s signature silky mousse”. The ‘Dom Perignon’ brand originally belonged to Champagne Mercier and was only gifted to M&C in 1927 when Francine Durand-Mercier married Paul Chandon Möet. Looking for a way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the London agency and re-launch the M&C brand in the UK, Laurence Venn came up with the idea of creating an exceptional quality champagne to be sold on allocation (at a higher price) to the British aristocracy. The house of Möet & Chandon had been famous since the days of Madame de Pompadour (who famously claimed “champagne is the only wine that leaves a woman beautiful after drinking it”) but this was a totally new departure for the brand. In 1935, each of the family descendants of Simon Brothers’ top English clients received a basket containing two sumptuous 19th century fashioned bottles of the 1926 vintage, sealed with wax and string. The customers’ reaction was so enthusiastic that Robert-Jean de Vogue decided to employ the same tactic in the US (M&C’s other most important market). In November 1936, he sent 100 cases of the 1921 vintage to the US on the boat Normandie in similar bottles. Only produced in exceptional vintages, ‘Cuvée Dom Perignon’ was reserved exclusively for the US market until 1947, and in 1959 was recognised by the world press as the most prestigious champagne in the world.

TAITTINGER Comtes De Champagne

KEY CHARACTERISTICS: Minerally, lush and succulent with notes of vanilla and almond and wonderful creamy fruit.

BLEND: 100% Grand Cru Chardonnay (of which 5 per cent is aged in oak). (Grapes come from six/seven villages in the Cote des Blancs and always undergo malolactic fermentation).

The Counts of Champagne (who were hereditary vassals of the Counts of Burgundy) were the most powerful men in France after the King and responsible for protecting the great trade fairs that regularly took place in Champagne between the 11th to 13th centuries. Born in Troyes in 1201, Thibault IV was a descendant of Charlemagne and one of the most famous Counts of Champagne because of his poetry and music (it was rumoured that he was the lover of Louis VII’s widow and that many of his poems were dedicated to her). When the Taittinger family purchased the ancient family home of the Counts of Champagne after the First World War and subsequently launched their own champagne house, re-locating from Mailly to Reims, it was not unexpected that they would use the name for a prestige cuvée. Thus the first ‘Taittinger Comtes de Champagne’ was launched with the 1952 vintage to pay homage to Thibault IV, who moved his court to Reims. This brilliant benchmark aperitif style Blanc de Blancs prestige cuvée is a blend of nearly 100 per cent Grand Cru material; the fruit being generally sourced from Avize, Chouilly, Cramant, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger and Pierry, although the exact blend will differ from year to year. A ‘Comtes’ should never be drunk before its 10th birthday and 15-20 years is the optimum age for it to show both freshness and complexity.

BOLLINGER Grande Annee

KEY CHARACTERISTICS: Rich, intense complex aromas, fine balance and lots of full ripe creamy fruit.

BLEND: 70% Pinot Noir/30% Chardonnay.

Bollinger only produce a vintage champagne in years when the harvest is really exceptional: all the grapes (both white and red) must be perfectly ripe with 100 per cent balanced sugar and acidity; otherwise the grapes are saved for reserve wines or blended into the ‘Special Cuvée’. For Bollinger’s vintage champagne, following first fermentation in small oak barrels, the house selects the very best wines cru by cru and the final bottled wine spends at least five years on lees under cork (instead of crown seal). The wine will be disgorged only 12 weeks before shipment to ensure that each bottle reach the customer in the freshest condition possible.

Learn more about the secrets behind the bubbles of champagne Jayne’s new book “Champagne – Behind The Bubbles”

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