Vesper
The Vesper was created by Ian Fleming for his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, published in 1953. Bond orders it in chapter seven, dictates the recipe to a bartender unprompted, and names it after Vesper Lynd, the double agent at the heart of the novel. It is one of very few cocktails invented in fiction that crossed into genuine bar culture. Three ingredients: gin, vodka and an aromatised wine, shaken not stirred, served in a deep champagne goblet with a large thin slice of lemon peel. The instruction to shake rather than stir is the most debated piece of direction in cocktail writing, and it is preference rather than technique. Fleming wrote Kina Lillet, which was reformulated in 1986 into the lighter and less bitter Lillet Blanc. The official specification names Lillet Blanc and that is the recipe above; the Cocchi Americano build below carries the quinine bitterness the original had, and is the closer reading of the 1953 text.
Variations
Glassware: Nick & Nora Glass
Garnish: Lemon Twist
Ingredients
45ml
A London Dry with strong juniper character. The gin leads and needs enough backbone to hold its own alongside the vodka without the two flattening each other.
15ml
A clean, neutral vodka adding proof and body without competing flavour. The gin is the lead here and the vodka supports the structure underneath it.
7.5ml
The official measure, and a small one: half a measure against three of gin and one of vodka, doing all of the sweetening on its own. This is the direct descendant of the Kina Lillet Fleming wrote, lighter and less bitter since the 1986 reformulation.
Instructions
Chill a Nick & Nora glass in the freezer or with ice water before building the drink.
Add the gin, vodka and Lillet Blanc to a shaker with cubed ice.
Shake hard for 12 to 15 seconds until well chilled and properly diluted.
Discard the chilling ice from the glass and strain the drink cleanly into it.
Express a large, thin slice of lemon peel over the surface, rest it on the rim and serve.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification; method ours). Last checked 13 August 2026.
Expert Tip
This drink is more sensitive to the choice of aromatised wine than almost anything else, because the gin and the vodka provide so little sweetness between them and there is nothing else in the glass to compensate. At 7.5ml the Lillet Blanc carries the entire modifying job from a very small measure, so pour it accurately and pour it from a bottle opened weeks rather than months ago. Cocchi Americano makes a more bitter drink and a closer one to what Fleming described, which is why it sits below as a variation with its own measures rather than as a substitution note. If you have Lillet Blanc and want to move that way without buying another bottle, a small dash of orange bitters recovers some of the complexity the 1986 reformulation removed. The gin matters almost as much: at 45ml against 15ml of vodka it leads, and it needs the backbone to do so.
Behind the Vesper
Flavour Profile
The Origin
Fleming published Casino Royale in April 1953, and the Vesper appears in chapter seven, ordered in the casino bar at Royale-les-Eaux with a specificity suggesting he had given the recipe genuine thought.
Three measures of Gordon’s gin, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet, shaken until ice cold, served in a deep champagne goblet with a large thin slice of lemon peel. Bond names it after Vesper Lynd when she appears later in the novel, and the name stuck in the fiction and in real bars alike. A poorly balanced drink does not survive that transition, and this one did.
The Shaken Instruction
Bond’s instruction to shake rather than stir has been argued about since publication, and both sides are describing the same thing accurately.
The conventional position in serious bartending is that stirring produces a cleaner, more precisely diluted result in a spirit-forward drink with no citrus in it, and that shaking introduces aeration and a slight cloudiness. That is true. Fleming’s Bond shakes it, and the shaken version is colder, more diluted and slightly aerated. Both are the Vesper. Whether the instruction is character, preference or a deliberate signal of iconoclasm is left to the reader.
Kina Lillet and the Reformulation
Kina Lillet was an aromatised wine from Bordeaux with a significant quinine content, giving it a pronounced bitterness that made it a distinctive modifier rather than a background one.
The brand was reformulated in 1986 as Lillet Blanc, considerably lighter and less bitter, with most of the quinine character removed in response to changing tastes. That made a more commercially successful product and a less useful ingredient for drinks designed around the original's bitterness. The official Vesper names Lillet Blanc, and at 7.5ml it is a light, clean, gin-led drink.
Cocchi Americano, a quinquina produced in Asti, sits closer to the original than anything else widely available, and the difference is immediately apparent side by side. It also wants a larger measure to do the same structural work, which is why the variation below is poured at 22.5ml rather than 7.5ml.
The Gordon’s Question
Fleming specified Gordon’s by name, the dominant London Dry of the era and the most widely available quality gin of the mid-twentieth century.
Gordon’s today is produced at a lower strength than the product Fleming knew, reduced in the United Kingdom market in 1992, and the lower proof produces a noticeably less assertive Vesper. A London Dry at 47 per cent or higher comes closer to the original character, which matters here because the gin is carrying three quarters of the spirit volume and the aromatised wine is doing all of the sweetening.
How to Serve It
Shaken hard and strained into a well-chilled coupe or Nick & Nora, with a large thin slice of lemon peel expressed over the surface and rested on the rim. No ice in the glass and no other garnish.
Fleming specified a deep champagne goblet, which is worth knowing and rarely worth following: modern coupes are smaller and keep the drink colder for longer. Serve it to people who already know what it is and to people who do not. It has enough cultural weight to carry both conversations and enough quality to justify the attention either way.
Make it at home
The Spirit
GinA flavour requirement rather than a method. The law asks only that juniper be the predominant taste and that the spirit reach 37.5%, which leaves everything else on the botanical bill to the distiller and permits a gin that was never redistilled at all.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Vesper?
Why is it called a Vesper?
Lillet Blanc or Cocchi Americano?
Should it really be shaken?
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits