For half a century the vodka martini – “shaken, not stirred” – has been synonymous with James Bond since the secret service agent first uttered the immortal line in Ian Fleming’s Dr No.
So purists cried sacrilege when, as part of an estimated £28m tie-in with Skyfall, Daniel Craig clutched a bottle of Heineken in an advertisement for the Dutch brewer.
Aficionados should be heartened, therefore, that normal service could resume with news of a partnership between the makers of Spectre, the new Bond film due for release in November, and a luxury vodka brand.
Hot on the heels of Aston Martin’s unveiling of 007’s new car, Belvedere Vodka has announced its tie-in to the Bond franchise, revealing no figures but, according to president Charles Gibb, “the largest global partnership we have done to date”.
The result, according to Ajay Chowdhury, president of the James Bond International Fan Club, is that “the odds are very short”, on Craig ordering up Bond’s preferred tipple, with the phrase regularly voted as one of the 100 most famous lines in film history.
It was in the Dr No book in 1958 that Bond, confronted with the eponymous villain for the first time, declared: “I would like a medium vodka dry martini – with a slice of lemon peel. Shaken and not stirred please. I would prefer Russian or Polish vodka”.
“This is really the drink James Bond is best known for,” said Andrew Lycett, Ian Fleming’s biographer. “Variations of it crop up in the books and films.”
It was not until Sean Connery’s third Bond outing, in Goldfinger (1964), that he was first heard to say those now trademarked words, which became so identified with Connery that his successor Roger Moore, though served the cocktail several times, never actually got to order one himself.
Gibb is confident his brand, quadruple-distilled from rye in a century-old Polish distillery, marries perfectly with Fleming’s description of Bond’s personal preference for grain-based vodka.
To mark the partnership, Belvedere Vodka, whose core drink is the martini, has produced two limited magnum (1.75-litre) editions – the 007 Silver Sable, in a silver illuminated bottle, and the MI6 edition, decorated with an etching of the MI6 HQ (blown up in Skyfall) and with the normal blue ink and strip stamp replaced with green, the colour of ink used by MI6 chiefs since its first director, Captain Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming, signed himself C.
“Bond is synonymous with the vodka martini, and I always say inside the vodka martini there is nowhere for the vodka to hide,” said Gibb,
As part of the deal, the company has hosted “know your martini” sessions for the film-makers, including producer Michael Wilson. But whether the barman will reach for the brand in Spectre is as yet under wraps. “You will have to wait and see,” said Gibb.
Bond films are known for their product placements. Die Another Day (2002), which saw three years of BMW replaced by Aston Martin among countless other deals, was nicknamed “Buy Another Day” for its heavy product placement. Red Stripe beer, Pan-Am, Smirnoff, Avis, L’Oréal and Omega watches have been just a few of those to capitalise on the Bond magic.
Explaining the Heineken deal, Craig told the website Moviefone in 2012: “We have relationships with a number of companies so that we can make this movie. The simple fact is that, without them, we couldn’t do it. It’s unfortunate but that’s how it is.”
Chowdhury said some fans were in uproar over Craig sinking a Heineken in Skyfall. The brewer has been in partnership with the films since 1998, and still is, though Skyfall was the first in which Bond himself drank the beers. A previous Bond had crashed through boxes of Red Stripe and in the books he has sunk a few beers over the years. Of the true aficionados, he said: “As long as he has his Aston Martin and his vodka martini we are relatively happy.”
The vodka martini was used as a “character beat” for Bond, something by which the audience can gauge his mood, he added. This is best exemplified in Casino Royale when, after losing millions at poker, Bond is asked if he wants his martini shaken or stirred, and replies: “Do I look like I give a damn?” It has become, too, an emblem of Bond. “At the end of The Living Daylights, there is a martini shaker, so we know he is there,” said Chowdhury.
Fleming’s love of vodka arose from his time in Russia as a young Reuters reporter, said Lycett, and the author was happy to litter his books with brand names.
Indeed Bond was a drinker – champagne, beers, martinis. One calculation estimated that in total he had ordered 19 vodka martinis and 16 gin martinis in Fleming’s novels and short stories. The only drink he doesn’t like? Tea, apparently.
The perfect martini
Measures: The specification for Bond’s perfect vodka martini are set out in the book Live and Let Die when Solitaire pours him a drink, 6 parts vodka to one part vermouth.
Shaken not stirred: According to Belvedere Vodka president Charles Gibb, you should stir for 90 seconds to get the right elements of dilution and chilling. Shaking imparts a lot of energy, gives a lot of air, and dilutes the drink more quickly, but achieves the right temperature in just 10-15 seconds.
Wet or dry: A very wet martini is normally 3:1, vodka to Vermouth. A very dry is 15:1, and known as a Montgomery, after the army chief Field Marshal Montgomery. The closest Vermouth got to Churchill’s martini was him waving the bottle and bowing to France. Alfred Hitchcock left the Vermouth on the other side of the room and just nodded at it.
Fashion. Fleming and Bond are credited with the resurgence of the martini from the 1950s onwards.
The Vesper: Bond invents his own drink in Casino Royale, named a Vesper after Bond Girl Vesper Lynd. He stipulates: “ Three measurements 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?”
