Ron Diplomatico is considered one of the best rum brands from South America. You can find it under the brand Botucal in Germany due to a legal dispute over the Diplomatico name.
Official site: rondiplomatico.com
The Dilomatico brand was created in the late 19th century by Juancho Nieto Meléndez.
Don Juancho was a true rum enthusiast who was intensively involved in sugar cane, mash fermentation, distillation and ageing for many years. The experience he gained, particularly in Jamaica, resulted in the creation of a rum that was pleasantly different in taste and quality from other rums on the market. For generations, Diplomatico has remained true to this style, even if it has occasionally adapted to taste to varying degrees. Today, Diplomatico rums are presented as soft rums with a strong aroma.
Perhaps anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the rum world has come across the popular Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva, which has won countless awards. It is a blend of rums created by traditional pot distillation and aged for an average of 12 years in Canadian white oak barrels. You can smell caramel, baked banana, vanilla or orange peel in the rum. In the sweetness, you can detect honey, ginger, cinnamon, orange, chocolate and oak notes.
Señor Meléndez's legacy of creating a rum of the highest quality is linked in particular to one of the rums exclusively associated with the Diplomatico name. The Ambassador Selection, also offered as Ambassador Luxus, is an excellent blend of rums created exclusively by pot distillation and aged first in white oak barrels and matured for at least two more years in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks; only then is the rum bottled at 47% vol in fine glass decanters. A truly unforgettable rum whose every drop combines perfection with balance. A blend of carefully selected 12-year-old rums. Master Blender Tito Cordero is responsible for this magnificent rum and has created a true masterpiece with Ambassadro Selection. This delicious 'liquid gold' will win you over with its amazingly strong aroma and subtle aromas of dried and candied fruits combined with rich, strong aromas of vanilla and spice and subtle smoky background notes. A complex combination of dark chocolate, dried fruit, coffee and vanilla on the palate, wrapped in a thick creamy mouthfeel. The almost endless finish is warm and powerful. Diplomático is synonymous with a true taste experience.
Diplomatico Reserva Blanco is also an excellent rum from the Destilería Unidas distillery. A blend of two- to six-year-old rums, it is filtered through activated charcoal after maturation until it takes on its original colour. The aroma presents a rich aromatic spectrum, unusually broad for light rums, with notes of cane sugar and buttered toast, freshly ground coffee, cocoa powder and cappuccino. The flavour is also very distinctive for a light rum: soft, creamy and, thanks to the rich mocha notes, exquisitely chocolatey.
In certain years, another rum is bottled for the true connoisseur: the Diplomatico Single Vintage rum is given a special barrel ageing each time.
It is worth briefly mentioning one interesting peculiarity that Destilería Unidas offers: in addition to pot and pot still distillation, there is a third variant, the so-called 'batch kettle', originating in Canada. This is a combination of pot still and column still, based on the demanding and slow method of batch distillation. The resulting taste experience is the intersection of the two usual distillation methods. In fact, the shape and characteristics of the stills have a considerable influence on the taste.
Diplomático (or Botucal), is one of the truly really big rums, not just in terms of the number of bottles produced.
