Steven Soderbergh: ‘There’s just no break in spirits’

Maverick filmmaker Steven Soderbergh has likened launching a spirits brand to “shooting a movie every day of your life” as he works to bring Singani 63 to global audiences.

Steven Soderbergh is one of the world’s most prolific filmmakers and founder of the Singani 63 brand

Speaking to The Spirits Business last month, Soderbergh said that while Singani 63 has experienced “very good penetration” in the “hardcore mixology market”, the brand will now seek to “push beyond and go directly after the consumer”.

Launched in the US in 2014, Singani 63 is a Bolivian spirit distilled using Muscat of Alexandria grapes.

Soderbergh was first introduced to the singani category while making his 2008 film Che, and later founded a company to import his own brand into the US. Singani 63 is a single-estate spirit produced at Bolivian distillery Casa Real.

On his move into the spirits industry, Soderbergh said: “It’s sort of like campaigning for an election that’s never going to take place. You have to do it all the time. The competition is so intense and so direct that you know if you’re not working on this, the person you are in competition with is, and they will just run right over you.”

This echoes the advice given to him by actor Dan Aykroyd, who founded Crystal Head Vodka in 2007.

Singani 63 has found favour with the “hardcore mixology market”

“He said to me, ‘if you’re not willing to show up for things, just don’t bother doing this – you have to show up’,” recalled Soderbergh. “And he’s really right; there’s nothing too small to put yourself out there and talk to people, meet with people, every opportunity you get.”

Soderbergh compared the film and spirits industries, and said that while both are “built on relationships and talent”, the latter is “like shooting a movie every day of your life  – there’s just no break”.

The filmmaker also praised the lack of a “zero-sum attitude” in drinks, which he became “accustomed to feeling in the entertainment industry”.

“[For] the people who work behind the bar, the business becomes very self-selecting and weeds out assholes,” he said. “You can’t work in a job where you interact with customers and they don’t feel good about that interaction. If you can’t pull that off, you’re not gonna make it; no-one is going to hire you.

“So the people who I’ve met who are out there in the trenches, making drinks and creating programmes, they are all super nice.”

Singani 63 has received support from influential bartenders such as Leyenda’s Ivy Mix and is now available in 22 US states. The brand entered the UK market earlier this year.

To read SB’s full interview with Steven Soderbergh, see our November 2018 edition, out soon.