A Bolivian Grape Vintage with Steven Soderbergh

BOLIVIA – Singani is made from Muscat of Alexandria grapes, cultivated in Bolivia’s mountainous vineyards. The Ocean’s Trilogy director has been hooked on the spirit since his first taste 10 years ago, and took me along to see how the grapes are harvested.

“I used to be a Ketel One drinker but the first time I tasted singani, just before I started shooting Che in June 2007, I knew it would be my desert-island drink.”

Steven Soderbergh, director of Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Traffic, and The Ocean’s Trilogy, is telling me about his first taste of singani, the distilled spirit made with Bolivian grapes.

We’re in the Santa Ana Valley near Tarija, a small city in Bolivia’s key grape-producing region. The director scopes out the craggy terroir responsible for producing that memorable first sip of singani a decade ago. Wearing a stone-coloured jacket, he fits right in, scaling the rocky terrain and knocking back singani like a hardened Tarija local.

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