Diplomatico 2013 Vintage Rum 700ml

Diplomático Single Vintage 2013 comes from DUSA, the Venezuelan distillery behind the Diplomático brand, founded in 1959 at the foot of the Andes and acquired by Brown-Forman in 2023. National brand ambassador Jose Luis Ballesteros, whose own family heritage traces four generations back to Diplomático's founders, helped introduce this release as a genuine first for the house: rather than aging each still's output separately and blending afterward, as with the core range, the 2013 vintage blends light distillates from the column, batch kettle, and Barbet column stills together before maturation even begins.

The blended spirit was distilled in 2013 and rested a full decade in ex-bourbon and ex-whiskey casks under Venezuela's hot, humid equatorial climate, which accelerates maturation dramatically and pulls an angel's share of roughly 6 to 8 percent a year, several times the rate typical of Scotch warehouses. Only 18,000 bottles were produced worldwide, with 6,000 allocated to the United States, and the rum is bottled in the 40–47% ABV range.

The nose opens on toffee, fudge, and toasted almond, developing into dark chocolate, cherry, pear, dates, and raisin on the palate, before finishing with brown sugar, vanilla, and a trace of mint chocolate.