James Bond chooses Château Angélus

I attended recently a wine tasting by the Flemish Wine Guild (”Vlaamse Wijngilde“) where Château Angélus and Château La Conseillante figured as leading men (or is it leading ladies).

The owner of Château Angélus, Hubert de Boüard de Laforest, mentioned at that occasion that his wine figured in the latest James Bond movie. Actually, I’m not such a James Bond movie fan, but when Château Angélus is involved I tend to make an exception. So off I went to the dvd-shop and rented me one “spic and span” new specimen of “Casino Royale”.

I had to wait for Mr. 007 to finish a glass of Bollinger La Grande Année (actually he only orders this fine Champagne but you never see him drinking it) and some cocktails, before it was finally time for the big one. Sitting in the train to Montenegro while having dinner with the marvellous Vesper Lynd, you see dear old Bond sipping from a glass of Château Angélus. Well, that is if you know the label of Château Angélus, a big bell against a yellowish background. On the web, I’ve read that it was a 1982 that he was drinking. But, at least in the version I saw, he never ordered it explicitly and the label was not very clear, so I could not see from which year it is, not even when hitting the pause button and putting my nose literally on my tv screen.

One little side note: he does not hold his glass at the stem but at the bowl. Would this be a problem for die hard wine lovers?

Remains my most important question, is this good publicity? I was not able to see the bottle very well. Moreover, James Bond is not explicitly ordering the wine and not saying things like exquisite wine, exceptional year. So you really must be in-crowd to notice it. Okay, I’m one of those lucky guys who were able to taste different years of Château Angélus just recently. But if I did not have tasted it and Monsieur Angélus did not mention that his wine figured in the movie, I would never have noticed it. Actually, I would have never seen the movie. Hey, I just saw this movie because this famous wine figured in it. But does a wine lover needs any more reasons to see a Bond movie?

And, hopefully, just hopefully, James Bond didn’t order his Château Angélus 1982 “shaken not stirred”.

Have a nice Château Angélus 1982 today!
Bart

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