It’s been eight years in the making but singani has finally received its own spirits designation in the US – and Oscar-winning film director Steven Soderbergh couldn’t be more ecstatic. Previously tucked away in the ‘brandy’ section by the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau (TTB), the sought-after classification of Bolivia’s Muscat of Alexandria grape distillate means Soderbergh can now start writing the sequel of singani’s 500-year-old story.
The landmark classification came out of the blue, says Soderbergh, who exports his Singani 63 brand to the US and the UK. “The TTB publishes four times a year and, while we’d been told it might form part of this autumn’s announcement, it was a surprise. Then, the day before my birthday in January, my phone started blowing up. It was a wonderful gift to find that singani’s classification had been approved.”
A long journey
For eight years the Hollywood director and his Singani 63 team patiently dealt with the red tape that goes into classifying a product. While that might seem a lifetime, it took cachaça a decade to receive TTB approval.
“In 2014, when I sat across the table from 17 people representing four different agencies [Treasury, ATF, TTB and the FDA], I felt like an ant at the bottom of the Matterhorn,” he says. Additional support came in the shape of the Bolivian government, which joined the initiative as a petition co-sponsor in 2018, but it still took another five years for singani to be approved.
The decision draws a line under what Soderbergh calls “psychic real estate”, but the classification really resolves the educational issues of a spirit that’s relatively unknown outside its native Bolivia.
“It legitimises the narrative that few other things can,” says Soderbergh. “Not only is singani a unique spirit that meets the criteria, but the ‘brandy’ label was confusing for consumers. If your mandate [as is the TTB’s] is to inform the public, then this needed to be done. As I understand it, the TTB wanted to rebuild the process and make it more fluid because consumers are becoming more sophisticated and want more guidance from the government when it comes to identification: that was the thrust of our narrative to the TTB.”
One role Soderbergh had to play during the eight-year process was that of international trade ambassador, laying the groundwork for bourbon and Tennessee whiskey to receive reciprocal recognition in Bolivia. Soderbergh says: “I had various conversations with Steve Luttmann, who engineered cachaça’s approval, and understood there needed to be a transactional aspect. Bolivia became the 44th country to import these whiskeys.”
A direct connection
In 2023, Singani 63 will be importing 10,000 cases to the US, and 1,000 of those are earmarked for the UK, where it launched in 2018. And while Bolivia’s heritage beverage has become a buzz word for bartenders, many cocktail lovers have little idea that singani even exists. Soderbergh relishes the challenge that lies ahead in sharing his passion for this unique floral spirit.
%%PAGE_BR%%
“Every time I see somebody experience singani for the first time it is a direct connection as to why I started this whole process in the first place. Watching someone’s reaction never gets old and it is one of the reasons I continue, wherever possible, to meet people and spread the word. Seeing someone with that look of surprise – it’s what I felt when I tried it for the first time in 2007. That moment never gets diluted and it makes me happy.”
With his films garnering a cluster of Oscar wins in his nearly 40-year career, by fortunate coincidence Soderbergh doesn’t have any big or small-screen projects lined up, so he can throw all his energies into expanding his beloved brand.
He says: “For the first time in 25 years I don’t have another project in front of me so it allows me to hit the road and I’m excited about that.
“We have an expanded story we can tell and have been discussing the degree to which we want to pursue opportunities outside of the US. In the aftermath of the category announcement, we’re getting calls from all over the world, and while it’s exciting that the word has spread beyond our borders, we also have to be careful: I don’t want to open too many fronts at the same time, go into a new market and fail. There are offers from 10 countries and we need to be selective. Spain seems plausible, if not just because it’s where I first tasted singani [when filming Che] while Japan is also interesting – I’m always looking for an excuse to go there.”
On the map
Moving forward with caution is logical, although should the floodgates open Singani 63 can scale up. The film director’s booze baby is distilled by Casa Real, a distillery and winery run by the fourth-generation Granier family based near Tarija that notches up its 100th anniversary in 2025. The distillery sells more than four million bottles of singani on home turf each year. Besides creating a three-year plan to open up the market to consumers, Soderbergh hopes the classification will also put Tarija on the map.
He says: “The potential economic impact is huge. It would be great if the region became more accessible with more flights, and there’s no reason it can’t become a wine and spirits destination. Casa Real is very proud of the category designation because it’s a product that’s unique to its country and it hasn’t had a lot of opportunities for its story to be told on the world stage.”
Obviously the director is contemplating telling singani’s story on screen, which is in what he calls “the bible stage”. He says: “I’m developing a series about the booze business as I’ve never seen it portrayed in any depth. The idea is about a young woman in the challenging male-dominated spirits business who wants to bring a new spirit to market, but it won’t be signani, I’ll make one up.
“While the category designation is a narrative thread that could work for this fictional company and character, the trick now is working an espionage aspect into it.”
