Clément

This matters for understanding what is in the bottle. Habitation Clement stopped distilling in 1988 or 1989, when production moved to the Le Simon distillery. Later the new-make also came from Fonds-Preville, J.M's distillery, and where it comes from today is not confirmed. J.M belongs to GBH like Clement, while Le Simon belongs to Holmex, the company of Yves Hayot. So Clement is a heritage brand and aging house whose rum is distilled elsewhere, not a place where cane is crushed today.

Dr Homere Clement was a politician of the Radical Party who served as Martinique's deputy in the French National Assembly from 1902 to 1906. He bought a sugar mill in the Acajou region in 1887 and added a distillery. His son Charles later built the Clement brand.

Bought by Yves and Bernard Hayot in 1986, Habitation Clement has been open to visitors since 1988, and the Fondation Clement followed in 2005. It is one of the island's most popular destinations. About 12,000 barrels rest in six on-site warehouses, by the house's own count. Rum enters new American oak at around 64 percent for maximum vanilla extraction, then moves to ex-bourbon, with some finishing in virgin French oak or ex-wine casks. Visitors can walk the now-silent original distillery, its stills cut open to show the workings.

According to a 2017 visit report, the angel's share at Habitation Clement runs about 8 percent a year, and a cask drops roughly 2 percentage points of ABV per year. That sets a practical ceiling on how long the rum can age before it falls below the 40 percent floor the AOC allows, which is part of why genuinely old Clement vintages are scarce and prized. Barrels of the same vintage are occasionally consolidated to slow the loss.

The community's highest-rated Clements are the old vintages and limited bottlings: the Clement 1976 and the Rare Cask Collection releases like the Non Plus Ultra 2000 sit near 8.8 to 8.9/10. These come from the distillate the brand laid down decades ago, before production moved between Simon and Fonds-Preville, and they show the deep rancio and dried-fruit complexity that long French-oak aging gives Martinique rum.