The Diamond estate was founded in 1670 on the banks of the Demerara River. The distillery, Guyana’‘s last, is now owned by Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL), a business created by the government when it nationalized the country’‘s distilleries in 1974. These distilleries closed one after the other and Diamond recovered their famous wooden stills, with a double still from Port Mourant, a four-column Savalle still from Uitvlugt, a single still from Versailles and a Coffey still from Enmore. Diamond itself is produced in a two-column metal Coffey still installed in the 1950s. After selling to brokers, merchants and blenders for many years, DDL finally launched its own brand, El Dorado, in 1992, featuring bottlings that blend or highlight the rums produced by the distillery’‘s different stills.

A Diamond molasses-based rum distilled in 1982 in the distillery’’s metal Coffey still and bottled in 2002. This rum was selected by the Genoese independent bottler Velier in the period when Luca Gargano had access to the cellars of Demerara Distillers Limited thanks to his friendship with Yesu Persaud. These selections played a key role in building Velier’’s renown, alongside its incredible Caroni bottlings. Velier no longer has access to DDL’’s stocks and these rums are now some of the most sought-after by collectors and enthusiasts due to the unique flavours and concentration offered by their tropical ageing. This bottle belongs to the third series of Demerara rum bottlings by Velier in 2002, before the black bottles used since 2004 and after the first series in 1996 and 2000. The previous series was bottled by the Dutch subsidiary of Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL), Breitenstein Produkten. This time the casks were bottled in Guyana, only ever experiencing a tropical climate, like the famous black bottles.