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The distillery was established in 1959 when the main producers and distributors of alcoholic beverages in Venezuela merged with Canadian drinks giant Seagram’s to form Licorerias Unidas S.A. The aim was to create a multi-purpose distillery which could make a wide variety of alcoholic beverages including vodka, whisky, rum, gin and liqueurs for the local market, thus this new distillery was fitted out with a number of different stills, including two copper pot stills, a batch kettle, a Barbet column and traditional column stills.
In 1992, Seagram’s became the sole shareholder in the company, but by 2001, Seagram’s wine and spirits brands were purchased for around $8 million by Diageo and Pernod Ricard. In the deal Diageo acquired Captain Morgan Rum, Crown Royal, VO and Seagram’s wine business, they also acquired several local brands including Cacique rum, which was one of the leading Venezuelan rum brands and was produced at Licorerias Unidas S.A. Incidentally Pernod Ricard took Chivas, Glenlivet and Martell brands from the portfolio. However, it appears that the Licorerias Unidas S.A distillery wasn’t amongst their long term plans, and it was sold to a group of Venezuelan entrepreneurs, led by José Rafael Ballesteros Melèndez and the distillery became Destilerias Unidas S.A (DUSA). The deal with Diageo included a bulk supply contract for Cacique rum but also included supplying blending rum for its Pampero brand.
At the heart of the company is the Diplomatico brand. It was created in 1989 and inspired by a 19th century Venezuelan nobleman called Don Juancho Nieto Meléndez, who travelled and allegedly amassed a large collection of rums, which he would share with guests at his lavish dinner parties. During his travels he would also act as an ambassador for the region, championing its products, including rum. The brand has since continued to go from strength to strength and has won numerous awards around the world.
Rum production at the distillery is overseen by master blender Tito Cordero, who began working at the distillery in 1988 and is only the distilleries third master blender since its inception. Located in the middle of three large sugar cane estates – Lara, Portuguesa and Yaracuy, it has an abundance of raw materials to work with and uses molasses for the production of its lighter rums and sugar can honey (or juice) for heavier rums. The Venezuelan climate is ideal for the growing of sugar cane with its warm daytime temperatures and cooler nights which allows a high concentration of sucrose in the sugar cane, thus the sugar cane honey has a 60% sugar content.
Fermentation takes place in 14 of its 18, 100,000 litre open top, stainless steel fermenters using its own proprietary yeast strain that was developed by the previous owners Seagram’s. The molasses is fermented for 24 hours whereas the sugar cane honey has an extended fermentation time of 48 hours. Dunder, the spent residue from the fermentation of the molasses is collected and reused in order to kick start subsequent light rum fermentation, whereas the residue from the heavy rum fermentation is left in the wash.
Both light and heavy rums are separately distilled. The first distillation for both takes place in the column still. The light rum comes off the still at around 56% and the heavy rum at 45%. The second distillation of the heavy rums takes place in No.1 and No.2 pot stills. Both feature a double retort, which is charged with a distillate from a previous distillation and helps the rum to achieve a higher strength. The cut to the heart is made at around 92% abv and the cut to the feints happens at around 70% abv, which results in a final spirit of around 80%. This very early cut to the heart run means that the spirit contains a lot of fusel oils, which gives their rum plenty of character, but also is a reason why their white rum is actually aged for between 2 and 6 years and then charcoal filtered.
Just to confuse everyone, the distillery also produces a semi-heavy rum. This distillation of sugar cane honey takes place in what is known as the Batch Kettle still. This huge copper still resembles a giant steam train boiler and is charged with 40,000 litres of wash and heated by internal steam pipes. The ascending vapours are sent to a rectifying column and result in a distillate of around 96% abv. The second distillation of the lighter rums takes place in the two computer controlled continuous column stills, which produce a distillate or roughly the same abv as the Batch Kettle and on the French double column Barbet still which produces a distillate of around 80% abv.
The distillery ages its rums in selection of ex-Bourbon, ex-Whisky and ex-Sherry Butts. The lighter rums go into cask at 65% abv, the semi-heavy rums at 55% and the heavy rums at 50% abv. According to Venezuelan regulations rums must be aged for a minimum of two years and the distillery will age theirs for between four and twelve years. Currently they have 21 warehouses, which holds over 250,000 casks. This gives master blender Tito Cordero a huge variety of rum styles and ages to use in the Diplomatico range. For example, the Planas Blanco is a blend of 50% 2 year old column still rum and 50% 6 year old pot still rum. As mentioned previously it is charcoal filtered and has the colour stripped, or mostly stripped prior to bottling. This oak ageing softens the rawness of the unaged rum, and the filtration removes some of the fuels and fatty oils. The Mantuano is a blend of 60% 4 year old Column Still, 30% 8 year old Pot Still and 10% Batch Kettle Still spirit. As this is predominantly made from lighter rums it has a lighter, slightly drier style as compared to the Reserva Exclusiva which is made of 80% Pot Still spirit aged up to 12 years and 20% Column Still spirit.
At the top of the range are the single vintage bottlings, which features rums produced from a single year’s harvest, aged for up to 12 years in ex-Bourbon casks and ex-Whisky casks, often finished in ex-Sherry butts for 1 year. Finally, there is the Ambassador Selection, which is bottled at 47%, and made from 100% Pot Still rum, aged for up to 12 years in ex-Bourbon casks, finished for 2 years in ex-Pedro Ximinex sherry casks. Finally, in 2017 the distillery decided to allow the Diplomatico lovers a chance to experience some of the component parts of their blends, by releasing the unblended rums that had been distilled on the Pot, Batch Kettle and Barbet stills. These component rums do not taste as sweet as the standard range and that leads me to believe that these components are not sweetened post distillation, unlike the other bottlings in their range. For a number of years this has been the elephant in the room and although it is widely believed that a number of distilleries/ brands sweeten their rums after they have been distilled, most of them would deny that fact, unlike Destilerias Unidas S.A, who have admitted that they carry out this practice, because, as they say, the Venezuelan’s like it like that, and as Diplomatico has a strong following here in the UK, one has to assume that the British like it like that too!
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