A gentlemen’s agreement sealed with a handshake made Bollinger Bond’s Official Champagne. Since then the brand has featured in no less than 15 Bond films.
We all know our favourite British spy loves a good drink. The shaken not stirred vodka martini is synonymous with 007 aka Agent James Bond, but his preference for bubbles is always Champagne.
In the original books by Ian Fleming, he drank many brands including Dom Perignon, Veuve Clicquot, Taittinger, Pommery and Krug, but it is Bond’s relationship with Bollinger in the movies that has become one of the most enduring partnerships in cinematic history.
The famous Champagne brand is once again stealthily showcased as James Bond’s Champagne of choice in the latest release from the Bond franchise, No Time to Die.
Bond’s preference for Bollinger Champagne goes back to Ian Fleming’s 1956 novel Diamonds are Forever when Tiffany Case sends a quarter bottle to Bond’s cabin on the Queen Elizabeth.
The brand was first featured in a Bond film in Live and Let Die released in 1973 when Roger Moore rang room service and requested a ‘slightly chilled’ bottle of Bollinger ‘with two glasses’.
But it was not until a lunch meeting that took place in France in 1978 between the Bond movie producer Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli and Christian Bizot, general manager of Bollinger that the partnership between the two iconic brands became official.
To quote another iconic movie, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
It made perfect sense. The two brands represent refined taste and sophistication with a splash of charismatic allure.
The first film made after the official agreement was Moonraker in 1979 and Bollinger played a starring role. A Bollinger bottle in a Bollinger branded ice bucket features in the Apollo Airways plane in the pre-title sequence.
Another appears a Bollinger branded ice bucket in Holly Goodhead’s room in the Hotel Danieli in Venice. “Bollinger! If it’s ’69 you were expecting me!” Roger Moore’s Bond famously exclaims.
In the last sequence of the film, metal-mouthed Jaws bites the cork off the top of a bottle of Bollinger Tradition RD and shares it with his girlfriend while the space station explodes around them.
Bond also chooses Bollinger RD in Octopussy, The Living Daylights, A View to a Kill, License to Kill and Skyfall.
In Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace Bond Bond’s preference is for the Bollinger La Grand Année including vintages 1988, 1989, 1990, 1995 and 1999.
In the latest Bond release, No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s Bond appears in a garage where he throws a dusty cover off his Aston Martin beside which appears a stack of Bollinger Champagne cases sitting against the wall.
To celebrate the moment, Bollinger has produced a Special Cuvée bottle adapted to feature a black and gold neck collar with a 007 blazon. It comes in a limited edition gift box that features a silhouette of James Bond alongside his Aston Martin DB5. The colour of the box reflects the silver birch finish of the DB5.
Champagne Bollinger worked with celebrated photographer Greg Williams on the Special Cuvée 007 Limited Edition campaign featuring his signature cinematic style that also features in the No Time to Die campaign.
The Bollinger Special Cuvee 007 Limited Edition is available globally from 1 October 2020.
