El Dorado

Guyana
Founded in: 1992

All about El Dorado

In the 17th century, European settlers in Guyana were introduced to sugar cane and they began to distill it when the British laid the foundation for Demerara Rum.

Soon each of the estates producing sugar cane started to distill Rum from molasses. El Dorado is produced at Demerara Distillers Ltd. Diamond Distillery in Guyana. 

From these producers, El Dorado obtained three of the oldest stills, each over 200 years old, and used it to procure versatile, rich and fascinating Rums that bare the heritage, quality, and soul of the soil and climate of Guayana.

The brand’s name is inspired by the expeditions of Sir Walter Raleigh, and his legendary search for the city of gold. Instead of gold, the explorer discovered something else of value: sugar.

His pursuits eventually paved the way for other explorers and gave birth to a different form of liquid gold: Rum.

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All about El Dorado distillery

The Diamond Distillery in Guyana is the culmination of a rich history of Rum making that stretches back to the 1650s. At one point there were over 300 sugar estates, each with its own still that was producing Rum.

However, over the centuries, a process of amalgamation saw the various estates combine, with only a number of important stills surviving the test of time. 

The heritage stills as they are now known have all been relocated to Diamond Distillery on the banks of the Demerara River under the governance of Demerara Distillers Limited.

In 1983 Diamond Liquors merged with Guyana Distilleries to form Demerara Distilleries. 

The heritage stills are the Enmore Wooden Coffey Still, the Versailles Single Wooden Pot Still, the Port Mourant Double Wooden Pot Still and a multi-column French Savalle Still.

The DDL facility now has a total of 12 stills, each producing a characterful distillate that cannot be reproduced elsewhere, comprising Rums such as El Dorado. 

The distillery also has more modern, multi-column continuous distillation facility, which is fed from an extensive fermentation plant that processes the molasses produced from Guyana’s extensive sugar industry.

The facility has the capacity to churn out 26 million liters of alcohol annually, making them one of the biggest bulk producers in the Carribean. 

The heavy, characterful Rums produced by DDL are suitable for long aging and the facility has some of the oldest stocks of Rum in the world. It’s aging houses holding in excess of 250,000 barrels.

Guyana’s Rum-making longevity is due in no small part to its contracts to supply the British Royal Navy for over three centuries, but without the heritage stills, the demand wouldn’t have lasted from as long as it did.
 
 

Distillery info