Top: Bollinger in the foreground in Moonraker’s pre-title sequence, with James Bond (Roger Moore) up to his usual amorous activity with a flight attendant (Leila Shenna).

It’s been 40 years since Roger Moore mentioned a 1969-vintage Bollinger in the film Moonraker, kicking off a long relationship between the champagne house and the cinematic James Bonds



Bollinger has celebrated its 40-year association with Eon Productions’ James Bond films with an event at Paris’s Hôtel de Crillon, with Bond co-producer Michael G. Wilson as its guest of honour.
   The brand was first mentioned by Roger Moore as James Bond in the 1979 film Moonraker, in a scene set in Venezia with Lois Chiles. Bond referred to a 1969 vintage. A bottle also appears in the film’s pre-title sequence.
   Bond producers Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said that the relationship is ‘one of the great partnerships of cinema, which has lasted for forty years and is not finished.’
   Guests at the event tasted the newly launched Moonraker Luxury Limited Edition, a 2007 vintage, with a backdrop of a Moonraker retrospective featuring sketches of the space shuttle, by Academy Award-winning production designer Sir Ken Adam.
   This edition features a magnum of the 2007 vintage in a St Louis crystal ice bucket, inside a hand-made pewter and wood veneer enclosure designed by Eric Berthes. Berthes reimagined Adam’s space shuttle design. It is limited to 407 examples, with a retail price of €4,500.
   In an earlier release, Étienne Bizot, CEO of Société Jacques Bollinger, said, ‘It brings me an immense amount of pride to be celebrating 40 years of partnership between Bollinger and James Bond, it is a testament to the friendship started in 1979, between my father Christian Bizot and James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli. A friendship based on our shared values such as excellence and elegance.’