El Dorado rum: Demerara rum and the wooden stills of Guyana

El Dorado comes from Guyana. Demerara Distillers Ltd, known as DDL, makes it at its Diamond distillery on the east bank of the Demerara River. Diamond is the only rum distillery still working in the country.

Difford’s Guide dates El Dorado’s launch, with the 15 Year Old, to 1992, from stocks laid down from 1976. DDL calls itself the largest supplier of bulk rums and alcohols from the Caribbean to brand owners in Europe and North America, and Difford’s Guide says Diamond predominantly makes rum for bulk buyers.

DDL’s own history records over 300 distilleries in British Guiana in 1780 and only nine in 1942, and Difford’s Guide dates the Diamond distillery to around 1670. As the sugar industry shrank, estates closed and their distilleries with them.

DDL’s own history records its formation in 1983 by merging Guyana Distilleries and Diamond Liquors. It dates the final merger of the last remaining estates and distilleries, with their stills moved to Diamond, to 1998; the El Dorado story page says 1999, and Difford’s Guide puts the closure of the Uitvlugt distillery in 2000.

Diamond runs metal column stills and three wooden stills. Each still makes rum known by a marque, a code once used for the estate it came from.

Demerara Rum is a geographical indication: Guyana applied for EU registration on 28 June 2018, and Regulation (EU) 2021/1291 of 28 July 2021 registered it. Difford’s Guide calls Diamond the only distillery making Demerara Rum.

The rules require the rum to be fermented and distilled on the coastal plain of the Demerara region, between the Boeraserie River and Abary Creek, from molasses or another cane product. It must be bottled at 40% ABV or more. Up to 20 grams of sweetening per litre may be added when blending, and colour may come only from the wood or from caramel.

DDL describes Port Mourant rum as deeply aromatic and Enmore rum as medium-bodied with a mild, fruity aroma. Blending the heavy pot-still marques with lighter column rum sets the weight of each bottling.

A dark colour is not proof of age. The GI allows caramel for colour, as UK law allows it in all rum. The age statement on the label is the guide.

Single Still bottlings put one wooden still’s rum in the glass on its own, among them Port Mourant and Enmore, and DDL has released single-marque rums at cask strength, such as LBI and DHE.

The Zombie calls for Demerara rum by name, 30ml beside Jamaican and Puerto Rican rum, and El Dorado fills it.

The 12 Year Old suits drinks written for aged or dark rum, such as the Rum Punch, the Jungle Bird and the Queen’s Park Swizzle. The Oxford Companion says Guyana supplied much of the English navy’s rum from the mid-1800s; Black Tot Day tells how the ration ended.

Keep the 21, the 25 and the Single Still bottlings for a glass on their own.

The history, stills, marques and casks are from DDL’s own page on its stills and DDL’s history page, with the casks from the EU main specifications and the Oxford Companion. The launch of El Dorado and the range are from Difford’s Guide.

The EU registration is Regulation (EU) 2021/1291, and its rules are in the main specifications published in April 2021, as DDL’s own statement records.

Jerry Can Spirits is an independent company: we are not affiliated with Demerara Distillers or El Dorado, and we do not act for or on behalf of them. This page is our own account, drawn from the sources it lists.