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"Dr. No" (1962 – English movie)
Director: Terence Young. Cast: Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman.
 James Bond has always been a sophisticated and wide-ranging drinker, with much more of a taste for Champagne -- particularly in Ian Fleming's novels -- than the vodka martinis he's now most famous for.
However, nowadays everything Bond drinks is a product placement. Bollinger Champagne, Finlandia vodka and Heineken beer are changing Bond's character. Bond was a patriot, not a mercenary. Yet if the Coors Brewing Company were to throw enough cash his way, the next thing you know Bond would be sipping bright red Zima XXX Hard Punch.
In "Dr. No," the first Bond film -- and still one of the most enjoyable -- Sean Connery's 007 drinks a lot of Smirnoff vodka, probably as a forerunner to the blatant commercialism of today's brand choices.
However, the moment that establishes Bond to audiences as more than a well-trained assassin, but a well-informed bon vivant as well, involves Champagne.
"Invited" to dinner while held captive by Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman), Bond grabs a bottle to use as a weapon.
"That's a Dom Perignon '55," says the evil yet cultured Dr. No. "It would be a pity to break it."
Bond shrugs, puts the bottle down, and says, "I prefer the '53 myself."
He's not just an oenophile -- he's a total vintage-obsessed wine geek. To American audiences of the 1960s, he must have seemed impossibly well bred. Today, he would be posting tasting notes online, under an alias, of course.
In fact, you can predict the quality of an early Bond movie by the vintage of Dom that he orders.
In the entertaining film "Goldfinger" (1964), Bond enjoys a bottle of the '53 Dom with a beautiful woman. But in "Thunderball" (1965), he orders a bottle of the '55 he once scorned -- and the movie isn't as good.
And when George Lazenby plays Bond in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969), he makes the huge gaffe of ordering a bottle of the '57 vintage, considered a poor one for Dom. No wonder Lazenby made only one Bond film.
Stick with the '53, 007. And please, hold the Heineken.
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