This page will be updated as we go through the novels) This Kentucky-based barrel-aged whisky seems to be a Bond staple when abroad. An observation can be made about Bond’s drinking preferences and habits. He’ll drink a martini at a bar or restaurant or when in company, while when drinking alone or in his hotel … Read more
At the start of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, James Bond is looking out at the beach, and getting unusually reflective. It was all there, his own childhood, spread out before him to have another look at. What a long time ago they were, those spade-and-bucket days! How far he had come since the freckles … Read more
Page will be updated as we go through the novels. There are times James Bond drinks brandy, or even a (few) brandy and soda(s) or ginger ale. For the latter, he seems to drink them when flying, or getting ready to fly. Perhaps the ginger ale is for his stomach? In Casino Royale, when Bond … Read more
Haig and Haig Pinchbottle is a blended scotch whisky in a unique three-sided bottle. The bottle was actually trademarked in the United States in 1958. In Live and Let Die at Sugar Ray’s, Bond and Leiter have scotch-and-soda with Haig and Haig Pinchbottle. When Bond returns to his hotel room after his “meeting” with Mr … Read more
This brand of cigarettes, found in France, makes a few appearances in the Fleming novels. In Casino Royale, Le Chiffre lights one up as he gets ready to torture Bond. In From A View To A Kill, Wing Commander Rattray, Head of Station F (France) “chain-smoked Gauloises and his office stank of them.” Bond moves his … Read more
In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, when Bond is in his first meeting with Marc-Ange Draco, they bond over a little whisky. With efficient, housekeeperly movements, he (Draco) took out a bottle of pinchbottle Haig, another of I. W. Harper’s Bourbon, two pint glasses that looked like Waterford, a bucket of ice cubes, a siphon … Read more
This Japanese whisky has a surprisingly long heritage, even when it was mentioned in You Only Live Twice. While Bond tells Dikko Henderson :”I can’t believe Japanese whisky makes a good foundation for anything“, both Dikko and Tiger consume it in the novel. Dikko defends the brand, “But you’re wrong about Suntory. It’s good enough … Read more
In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, when James Bond is planning his escape from Piz Gloria, he requests a flask of schnapps under the guise of not being able to sleep at night. He explains that he always has a nightcap at home, usually whisky, but here he says “When in Gloria, do as the … Read more
In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, when Bond goes out to dinner prior to his night at the Casino where he rescues Tracy from the “Gambit of Shame,” Bond enjoys a turbot poche (poached turbot fish) with sauce mousseline (made of egg yolks, butter, lemon juice, and whipped cream) and “half the best roast partridge he had eaten … Read more
In Casino Royale, James Bond and Vesper are having champagne, and Bond originally requests a Taittinger ’45. The wine waiter replies: ‘A fine wine, monsieur,’ said the sommelier. ‘But if the monsieur will permit,’ he pointed with his pencil, ‘the Blanc de Blanc Brut 1943 of the same marque is without equal.’ Bond accepts the … Read more