Steven Soderbergh TNS

Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh will be in Portland on Tuesday to celebrate the launch of Singani 63, the national spirit of Bolivia, in Maine.

The event will be held during a special happy hour from 5 to 8 p.m. at Little Giant, the West End restaurant at 211 Danforth St. Soderbergh will screen his short on Singani 63’s distiller, and cocktails made with the spirit will be available.

Singani is the 500-year-old indigenous spirit of Bolivia, distilled from the white Muscat of Alexandria grape grown in the Andes. Soderbergh first tried Singani and fell in love with it when he was in Bolivia shooting the movie “Che,” according to the spirit’s website, and he spent years bringing it to the United States. The 63 in Singani 63 is a reference to 1963, the year the director of “Erin Brockovich” and the “Ocean’s” trilogy was born.

Singani is classified as a brandy in the United States. The grapes that go into it must be grown at a minimum altitude of 5,250 feet, and only within the confines of the historic home of Singani in the Andes. It was the recipient of a gold medal at the International Craft Spirit Awards.