Steven Soderbergh in the Casa Real Distillery
The name Steven Soderbergh may not be familiar to everyone, but his films certainly will be. The multi award-winning US director, screenwriter and producer is behind some of the biggest box office hits of the 21st century. They include the Ocean’s trilogy, Erin Brockovich, Magic Mike and the highly acclaimed Traffic, for which he won an Academy Award as Best Director.
But alongside filmmaking, Steven has something of a side hustle, developing the spirits brand Singani 63. The spirit’s London launch was celebrated at an event in Hawksmoor Borough at the start of September. Steven was joined by Sarah Soderbergh, his daughter and the brand’s director of marketing, for a tasting of mouthwatering Singani 63-based cocktails.
Starting out
Steven explains the origin of the project. ‘In 2007, singani wasn’t legally available outside of Bolivia. We had a start-up party for Che [the 2008 film biopic about the legendary Argentinian revolutionary, Che Guevara, which he directed] and the Bolivian casting director gifted me a bottle of singani… instead of a t-shirt!’ he laughs.
‘I really didn’t know what I was getting into, but I loved it. That was the beginning,’ he adds.
Seven years later, in January 2014, the Singani 63 brand finally launched in the US market. The name references Steven’s birth year. He says: ‘I gave myself a year at it. If the “canaries in the coal mine” didn’t support it, then I was out.’
Those ‘canaries’ were the top echelons
