Diplomatico Mantuano Gold Rum

Mantuano is the drier Diplomático — the one built for cocktails and for drinkers who find the Reserva Exclusiva too sweet. Destilerías Unidas makes it at the foot of the Andes in La Miel, Venezuela, where the distillery has run since 1959: a blend of rums from the house's copper pot stills, batch kettle, and column, fermented from sugarcane honey and molasses, aged up to eight years in ex-bourbon and ex-single-malt oak, and bottled at 40% ABV. It's named for the Mantuanos, the aristocratic landowners of colonial Venezuela. Bespoke Unit calls it the balanced Diplomático, and the Distillery Collection was created in part to show the components it's built from. Expect a nose of caramel, vanilla, dried fruit, and gentle oak with a woody, faintly smoky edge from the whisky casks, opening into a medium-bodied palate of toffee, orange peel, baking spice, and light tobacco that's noticeably less syrupy than its famous sibling, finishing warm and moderately long. Honest note: Memphis Rum Club found it drier than the Reserva Exclusiva and good in cocktails — it's still a soft, Spanish-style Venezuelan rum in the Diplomático house style, just with the sweetness dialed back a notch. For a Rum Old Fashioned, a Diplomático and ginger, a Mai Tai split, or a rum and Coke that doesn't taste like dessert, it's the workhorse of the range. The landowner's rum, for everyday pouring.

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