The back-to-basics James Bond of Casino Royale has brought a bonanza to a small French firm whose apéritif was part of 007’s Martini in Ian Fleming’s novel.

The Lillet company, in the village of Podensac, near Bordeaux, has been deluged with queries and orders for its bitter orange vermouth since Daniel Craig’s Bond mentioned the original recipe in the new film of Fleming’s 1953 book.

Unlike most of the brands that are featured in the 007 franchise, Lillet, which dropped the Kina from its name a few years ago, did not pay a penny for its product placement.

“With our budget we could never have paid for an appearance in an international feature film,” said Bruno Borie, owner and director of the company, which employs seven staff.

Lillet was founded in 1872 and became fashionable after the Second World War, thanks largely to the late Duchess of Windsor. The wife of the exiled former Edward VIII travelled with Kina Lillet and demanded it in Paris restaurants.

“When Fleming wrote Casino Royale, Lillet was fashionable in England. The Duchess of Windsor always made sure that cases of Lillet preceded her arrival in grand hotels,” Mr Borie said. “Fleming wanted to create an original, sophisticated cocktail with a French touch for his spy. Today we have moved into the arms of Eva Green, which is more modern.”

The French actress plays Vesper, Bond’s love interest in the new film, whose name is given to the Martini.

“We have had calls from all over the United States from people who were looking for Lillet or who wanted to make this cocktail and wanted more information,” Mr Borie said. The company’s website has also had many more hits than usual.

Lillet sells fewer than one million bottles a year, in France, the US, Canada, Scandinavia and Britain.

The vermouth has appeared in The Sopranos, the television drama about the New Jersey Mafia. In The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter invites his victim to share a glass of Lillet before he eats his brain.

Fleming’s 1962 recipe was a little brash for the time, since purists insisted that gin and not vodka was the only true base and that it should be stirred, not shaken, like a brash American cocktail.

Somerset Maugham once decreed that stirring was essential “so as not to bruise the gin”.

Ice and a slice

Chris Lacey, bar manager at the Met Bar in Mayfair recommends 25ml Plymouth gin, 25ml Snow Queen vodka and 20ml Lillet shaken with plenty of ice in a Boston shaker and fine strained into a chilled martini glass. Then a twist of lemon is added.

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