The drink was popularised by author Ian Fleming (1908–1964) in his 1953 novel Casino Royale, in which the character James Bond invents the recipe and names the cocktail.

[1] Just as the character Vesper Lynd dies in Casino Royale, the cocktail named for her makes no appearance in any of Fleming's later Bond novels.

Fleming, in a letter to The Guardian in 1958, said that when he tasted a Vesper for the first time "several months" after including it in his novel, he found it "unpalatable".

[3][4] Although the production of Kina Lillet ceased in 1986,[5] in the 2006 film Casino Royale, Bond gives the barman the same recipe as he does in the novel.

"[6][7][c] The Vesper, including its original recipe recited by a barman, appeared again in the film Quantum of Solace (2008), a sequel to Casino Royale based on the Bond character but no specific work of Fleming's.

[9] Because the production of Kina Lillet, a fruit-and-spice flavoured apéritif wine from Bordeaux,[8] ceased in 1986,[5] the original recipe can no longer be used to reproduce the Fleming-Bond cocktail faithfully.