The Real Casino Royale
TASTING NOTES: “The resulting wine is of a brilliant lemon hue with hints of chartreuse at the meniscus, teeming with tropical aromatic notes — from green papaya to mango and nascent pineapple and a burst of sea spray. The palate gives way to a rich palette of citrus flavors from zest to fresh juice, bursting with flavor, this mouthwatering wine is nothing sure of exuberant with a personality truly its own.“ (AbV 14.1%)
VARIETALS: Vermentino
BARRELS: 7 months sur lie in stainless steel.
PAIRS WITH: Miso-glazed black cod or other sea food.
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Casino Royale… 1967.
A strange parody movie that happened to use the actual James Bond characters. Honestly, more interesting than the actual film is the story of its development and production.
The rights to Casino Royale were purchased by producer Gregory Ratoff in 1955. He tried to get something going up until his death in 1960. His agent, Charles Feldman, bought the film from his widow. Albert Broccoli, producer and founder of Eon Productions, tried to buy it off him, but no deal came through. Feldman kept trying to get it made with little luck while Eon’s Bond films were released to acclaim. Eventually Feldman decided to try to play ball again with Eon in ’64, only for that to fall through when the producers kept arguing. Feldman finally managed to get Columbia Pictures to accept a production based on a script by Ben Hecht, who had done several iterations over the years. But then Hecht died in ’64, two days before he could give his last script to Feldman. It would end up completely rewritten by Billy Wilder, and then three more writers would end up with the final credits.
Also, there were literally five different directors involved who each contributed about 20-40 minutes of material.
