Bond On Bond (21 page)

Man cannot live by bourbon or champagne alone, however, and so there are also some fine wines served and consumed throughout Jim’s adventures, along with some less memorable ones – Phuyuck anyone?

In
Goldfinger
, Bond shows off his sommelier skills to M when brandy is served: ‘I’d say it was a thirty-year-old fined and indifferently blended, with an overdose of
bon bois
.’

In Japan for
You Only Live Twice
Jim displays his appreciation of the local rice wine drink when Tiger Tanaka offers him the choice of a vodka Martini or sake. ‘Oh no, I like sake, especially when it’s served at the correct temperature, 98.4 Fahreneit, like this is.’ Hang fire, Jimmy!

My wife Kristina and I discovered the true joy of sake when we were in Japan and Korea, where it is, in fact, served cold. There are two basic types of sake:
Futsū-shu
, which is termed ‘ordinary’ sake, and
Tokutei meishō-shu
, which is ‘special-designation’ sake.
Futsū-shu
is the equivalent of table wine and accounts for the majority of sake produced, whereas
Tokutei meishō-shu
denotes the premium sakes, distinguished by the degree to which the rice has been polished and the added percentage of brewer’s alcohol or the absence of such additives.

I became a bit of an aficionado, as you can tell. And Jimmy, I have to tell you, hot sake is usually only served as a winter drink, and high-grade sake is
never
served hot because the flavours and aromas are lost.

A couple of films later, in
Diamonds Are Forever
, it is sherry that becomes the talking point of a meal. Bond, M and Sir Donald Munger (played by my old friend Laurence Naismith, from
The Persuaders!
) are being served the Spanish fortified wine.

‘Pity about your liver, sir, it’s an unusually fine solera. Fifty-one I believe,’ says our hero.

‘There is no year for sherry, 007,’ replies M.

Not to be outdone, Jim retorts, ‘I was referring to the original vintage on which the sherry is based: 1851, unless I’m mistaken?’

Of course he wasn’t and a decent knowledge of wines can – literally – save your life. Look at how Red Grant gave himself away in
From Russia With Love
by ordering red wine with fish. Unthinkable! (But possible!)

At the climax of
Diamonds Are Forever
, posing as stewards, the limp-wristed Wint and Kidd give themselves away similarly when they offer Bond a Mouton Rothschild ’55. The steward uses a gas ejector to remove the cork – they were all the fashion at one point, even on aeroplanes, until the pressurized gas within caused huge problems with exploding champagne bottles at 30,000 feet – and gives it to Bond, who smells the cork and also gets a whiff of the steward’s strong (and familiar) cologne, and realizes it’s the bad guy.