After James Bond defeats SPECTRE agent Dr. No, they seek revenge, and assign an undercover assassin, Donald Grant, to kill him. Bond is assigned to assist in helping a defection of Tatiana Romanova, a clerk who can assist in stealing a Russian cryptographic device. Bond meets her in Istanbul, and they travel on the Orient Express, where Grant unsuccessfully attempts to kill Bond. After that, SPECTRE’s chairman Ernst Stavro Blofeld gets involved, and sends another assassin.

As with other Bond movies, I started with a researched drink menu, and moved from there.

Raki

Raki is the national drink of Turkey. To assist in the defection, Bond meets the MI6 Istanbul branch head Ali Kerim Bey, and they get in a fight with SPECTRE. After Kerim Bey gets injured, they retreat, and he then drinks the Raki. Bond calls it “filthy stuff,” but Kerim Bey drinks.

To be honest, as this was the only time I saw this on the drinking list, and the only local source I could find was a full sized bottle for over $30, I decided to pass on this one.

Champagne

Bond and Romanova drink some Dom Perignon champagne in the hotel suite. Again, for just one glass, I passed.

Chianti

When Bond and Romanova board the Orient Express, they meet Grant for dinner. After ordering fish for dinner, Grant then orders Chianti, which is like ordering spaghetti sauce to go on your French toast. This gives away that he is actually a Russian agent, and Bond takes action.

Rather than buy Chianti just for this, I drank a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. But I didn’t eat fish with it.

Notes:

As I have prepared for these posts, I have done quite a bit of online research into the drinks Bond enjoys, and I found myself a little confused sometimes, because there are many times where there are large discrepancies between accounts of the drinks.

Fortunately, one posting mentioned up front that their references were to the Bond novels, not the movies. That turned on a light in my head, and after research I found that this is why the original list included a Negroni in Dr. No – he drinks it in the book, but drinks Black and White Champagne in the movie.

I felt better knowing that.