licence to distill.

007's favourite drink was vodka Martini, shaken, not stirred.

But the man behind the British secret agent -- author Ian Fleming -- preferred Plymouth Dry Gin when he was penning masterpieces like Thunderball and Dr. No.

Now the oldest gin in the world has been relaunched in Bermuda, after mysteriously going missing for 25 years.

Spies at Burrows Lightbourn discovered the gin was being distilled in Britain again after being locked up and lost by massive liquor firms.

The gin originally went into hiding after the Second World War, when the Royal Navy stopped shipping it around the world.

But now it is selling 42,000 cases around the world every year, having dipped to an all-time low of 5,000 cases in the 1970s.

Burrows Lightbourn General Manager Trevor Nicholls said nobody does it better when it comes to original gin than the Plymouth distillery.

And it wasn't just Bond's author who would Q up for the drink. It was also the favourite of Winston Churchill, Alfred Hitchcock and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But the gin disappeared completely from Bermuda's liquor stores. It now sells on the Island for $24.95.

BUSINESS BUC