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.