By Heather Findlay

First it was Bond, James Bond, who by ordering a Lillet martini in one of Ian Fleming’s classics helped raise this popular French apèritif’s international profile. Then it was Bruno Borie, the self-described black sheep of a prominent Bordeaux family, who scooped up the Lillet company in the eighties and gave the formerly syrupy, slightly bitter concoction a much-needed makeover.

(Borie’s biography is very interesting Cain and Abel story, actually, with a touch of Oedipus thrown in, all set in the gracious halls of Ducru Beaucaillou, which Borie recently took over from his younger brother.) Finally, do you need a better reason than the new movie version of Casino Royale, Lillet’s literary debut, to try this drink?

Click here for the results of our taste-test:

If so, just take my word for it: Lillet (pronounced lee-LAY) is yum-MEE. This weekend four members of the Ladies Tasting Society, who typically don’t think further than “Champagne” when the word apéritif is uttered, worked through an entire bottle of this kind-of-winey, kind-of-orange-liqueurish liquid. We drank it straight up, well-chilled, in wine glasses, and even without the slice of orange the distiller recommends, we were hooked. Some ladies really liked it with cheese; I thought it was a bit powerful for food, best as just what an apéritif should be: a stand-alone appetite-whetter before dinner.

For the curious, Lillet is essentially a nonvintage white Bordeaux (that is, a sauvignon blanc-based white wine made from a blend of several years’ produce) mixed with some fruit brandy (mainly orange). There’s a red version, too. Lillet’s facility is in Graves, a noble region of Bordeaux, near the famous chateau of Haut Brion. It goes for about $14 a bottle, packs a wallop of 18% alcohol (so watch out), and sounds even more delicious in some of the recipes recommended on the winery’s website. And yes, the Bond version is shaken.