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Steven Soderbergh not looking to ‘cash out’ on Singani 63
Acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh has stressed that he did not enter the spirits industry to get bought out, and instead wants his Singani 63 brand to become a “sustainable business”.
Steven Soderbergh has a deep connection with his Singani 63 brand
Academy Award-winner Soderbergh launched Bolivian spirit Singani 63 in the US in 2014 after discovering the category while making the biographical film Che.
Speaking to The Spirits Business last month, he said: “I didn’t get into this to get bought out. There’s no version of this brand in which I’m not running the company, creating the content and supervising all the details of how the brand is marketed and sold.
“Would it be nice to have a partner who could help me with expanding distribution? That would be fantastic. But my goal is to turn this into a sustainable business – it’s not to cash out.”
Soderbergh’s daughter now works for the brand, which Soderbergh is aiming to bring to international audiences.
“I’m as sceptical as anyone about the paid endorsement stuff, but I think people understand now that’s not what’s happening here,” he said.
Singani is a Bolivian spirit made using Muscat of Alexandria grapes and is largely unknown outside of its domestic market. The Singani 63 brand is a single-estate iteration produced by the Casa Real distillery.
“As difficult as it is to create this narrative from scratch for people, I’m happy at least that it is a new thing and not another version of a spirit that already exists in the minds of drinkers,” Soderbergh told SB. “And I’m not going head to head with companies that have massive resources and infrastructure that I could never compete with.
“The idea of me launching a Tequila… I’d rather be fighting this fight and educating people about something they have never heard of than convincing them that the nth iteration of this staple spirit is something they should pay attention to. I would rather be in the situation we are in.”
To read Soderbergh’s full interview, see the November 2018 issue of The Spirits Business, out soon.