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Distillerie du Simon
Distillery

Distillerie du Simon

Le Simon is Martinique's ghostwriter. It is the island's most technologically advanced distillery, yet it sells no rum under its own name, runs no public tours, and ages nothing on site. Instead it distils two of the most beloved names in Martinique agricole, HSE and, until recently, Clement, on stills moved here from their original homes. What you taste as HSE is, in fact, Le Simon.

  • HSE and Clément under one roof
  • Clean, well-integrated aged agricole
  • Standout Port and red-wine cask finishes

RumX market intelligence

As of September 2026

Community score
8.0/10
ratings
5,022
bottles catalogued
337
available to buy now
91
Distillerie du Simon
RumX Guide

The distillery with no brand of its own

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The Distillerie du Simon lineup compared

Which bottling is the better one is decided neither by price nor by the age on the label. Here they stand side by side, sorted by the community's median rating. The number of ratings sits next to it: a high score from few voices says less than a middling one from many.

BottlingAgeABVCommunity scorePrice
HSE Hors d'Age 1960 Rhum Agricole45%—45%9.2/10 22 reviews1,800 €
HSE Single Cask (MEB 2018) 2003 Rhum Agricole AOC14 years 4mo · 47,8%14 years 4mo47,8%9.0/10 16 reviews154 €
HSE Château Marquis de Terme Finish 2005 Rhum Agricole11 years 6mo · 48%11 years 6mo48%8.9/10 22 reviews77 €
HSE Single Cask (MEB 2019) 2003 Rhum Agricole AOC15 years 4mo · 47,8%15 years 4mo47,8%8.8/10 67 reviews120 €
Clément Cuvée Spéciale XO Rhum Agricole6–48 years · 44%6–48 years44%8.8/10 24 reviews93 €
HSE Skouras White Wine Cask Finish 2008 Rhum Agricole AOC12 years · 49,5%12 years49,5%8.8/10 16 reviews250 €
HSE Château La Tour Blanche - Brut de Fût 2009 Rhum Agricole AOC10 years 2mo · 50,1%10 years 2mo50,1%8.8/10 15 reviews340 €
HSE Single Cask (MEB 2017) 2003 Rhum Agricole AOC13 years 9mo · 47,8%13 years 9mo47,8%8.8/10 12 reviews93 €

121 bottlings meet the minimum rating count; the 24 best-rated are shown. The rest are in the grid below.

Only bottlings with at least 10 ratings are included. Anything below that is not a sound basis for comparison.

Distillerie du Simon vintages

Single cask bottlings often carry the year of distillation. The vintage page shows what else went into cask that same year.

2025 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 Explore Rums by Vintage Year →

Community purchases

15,697 bottles from Distillerie du Simon bought by the community.

+181 purchases in the last 3 months.

Added to collections, last 12 months — dark bars are the last 3.

as of

RumX Community

Community reviews: Distillerie du Simon

La Confrérie du Rhum HSE XO (Cuvée No. 22) 2016

Review by LukaŽiga

LukaŽiga
LukaŽiga
Mar 2026801 reviewsGermany
8.5/10

8,5:On the nose, there's a lot of greediness, the rum is well balanced, sugar cane is juicy, waxy, mineral and slightly smoky. There are strong peaches and some tea.As is often the case with HSE, the influence of the cask is evident in the form of wood, a bit roasted, dry, which …

34 found this helpful
Clément XO

Review by LukaŽiga

LukaŽiga
LukaŽiga
Nov 2025801 reviewsGermany
8.2/10

8,3:The nose of this rhum agricole is fresh and minty, green apple arises. It's also loaded with real smoke, spices, also fresh (curry). It's complex, vegetal and decidedly fresh, like cut grass or Alpine tea. Then a lovely woodiness enters the scene. Finely spiced, it is …

25 found this helpful
Clément Canne Bleue 2021

Review by Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰

Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰
Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰
Sep 20255,622 reviewsDenmark
8.6/10

18.09.2025 Received a box of white/unaged samples yesterday with many new, but also rums I have tried before. Retasting this rum and I still think this is a really nice release. Most of the Canne Bleue are really nice so something most should give a try. ----------------- This …

55 found this helpful
Clément Single batch (Chauffe extrême)

Review by Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰

Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰
Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰
Jun 20255,622 reviewsDenmark
7.5/10

01.06.2025 Retasting one more time while relaxing in front of the telly 😊 Pretty nice wood and roasted notes with vanilla, dried fruit, and some honey. There is a nice smoky note in there with som nutts and berries (cherry I think). Price to quality is still pretty good and it …

HSE Rhum Agricole Extra Vieux - Les Forêts - Chantilly 2015

Review by Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰

Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰
Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰
Mar 20255,622 reviewsDenmark
8.5/10

#5114 17.02.2025 Running some samples at home. Nose Fresh, wood, Agricole, sugarcane, light tannins, fruity, vegetal, light citrus, spice. Palate Balanced, fresh, Agricole, spice, wood, light tannins, light citrus, light roasted, light nutts, light dry. Finish Medium to …

HSE Grande Reserve XO

Review by Galli33

Galli33
Galli33
Feb 2025490 reviewsItaly
8.5/10

This is a super delicious Agricole from the start to the finish! The Alcohol and wood is integrated very well. This is a good rum to pair with a cigar! I use this always as a agricole starter in a tasting for beginners and advanced drinkers.

50 found this helpful
Clément Secrets de fûts (Intense)

Review by Stefan Persson

Stefan Persson
Stefan Persson
Aug 2024680 reviewsSweden
6.8/10

Bought this bottle when I drove down to Spain some weeks ago. It’s first aged for 1 year in French and American oak barrels and thereafter for 3 years in former bourbon barrels. The taste of bourbon is dominates, which I find a little bit too much especially when the bottle was …

HSE Black Sheriff One Shot

Review by Stefan Persson

Stefan Persson
Stefan Persson
Aug 2024680 reviewsSweden
7.1/10

It’s a blend of three-to-four-year old rum aged in American oak bourbon barrels It’s quite young and that’s noticeable when it’s coming to the deep in the rum and the powerfulness. Overall I’m getting a little of a whisky feeling, but that’s not bad. I think it’s quite good for …

52 found this helpful

How the crew scored it Distillerie du Simon

RumX’s 0–10 scale is strict: 8.0 sits in the “Very good” band. 80% of tasters rate it Good or better; only 1% rate it below average. See the full rating guide →

Flavour profile of Distillerie du Simon

Top aromas · nose & palate
Woody53%
Sugarcane42%
Vanilla41%
Fruity37%
Fresh · nose only27%
Spice · palate only27%
Dried fruit · nose only25%

207 of 337 bottles have detailed tasting notes · Click an aroma to explore similar rums

The RumX Guide to Distillerie du Simon

The distillery with no brand of its own

Le Simon is the only Martinique distillery not open to the public, and the only one that makes no rum under its own name. In distilling circles it is a ghostwriter: the stand-in parent and keeper of two cherished names, Clement and Habitation Saint-Etienne (HSE). When those brands' own distilleries closed, their stills were physically moved to Le Simon, completing what The Rum Tour calls a merger 130 years in the making.

From Bougenot's sugar to the Hayot empire

Le Simon was built in 1862 by Emile Bougenot, an engineer who ran nine sugar refineries and owned Le Galion, the island's last working sugar mill. For its first 70 years it was a sugar factory making molasses rum on the side, switching to agricole in the 1930s. In 1971 Yves Hayot bought it. He then moved Clement's distillation here in 1989 and HSE's in 1994, building Le Simon into one of the island's largest distilleries under the Holmex banner.

Four columns, four jobs

Le Simon runs four column stills, each with a job. One came from Habitation Clement and distils Clement; another is the original column from St Stephen and distils HSE; two more handle products for the local market. Rum comes off at around 74 percent. The distillery owns no plantation, sourcing cane from farms across the south, and ferments with Belgian baker's yeast over 24 to 36 hours. With no warehouses, every drop is shipped out to be aged elsewhere.

HSE, the brand built on cask experiments

HSE rum is distilled at Le Simon, then trucked north to the original Habitation Saint-Etienne at St Stephen, where it is brought to strength with water from the Lezarde river and bottled. The brand is known for an adventurous range of finishes: single malt casks including Islay, sherry and sauternes among them. Habitation Saint-Etienne was the island's top seller during the lean 1950s and even inspired a Patrick Chamoiseau story.

What the RumX community drinks

Le Simon is one of the most reviewed distilleries on RumX, almost entirely through HSE and old Clement. The HSE Hors d'Age 1960 tops the house at 9.2/10, and single casks like the HSE Single Cask 2003 draw big review counts. The cask-finish program gives the community a deep field of bottles to explore, all of it distilled at this one quiet plant by the sea.

Frequently Asked Questions about Distillerie du Simon

HSE (Habitation Saint-Etienne) and, until recently, Rhum Clement. It makes no rum under its own Le Simon name. The brands’ original stills were moved here when their distilleries closed.

Holmex, the Yves Hayot family company. Yves was the elder brother of Bernard Hayot, whose GBH owns Clement and J.M, which is why Clement was long distilled at Le Simon.

It is the only Martinique distillery that does not offer public tours. As a production-only ghostwriter for other brands, it keeps a low profile, unlike the visitor-focused estates like Clement or J.M.

Yes. HSE is distilled from fresh cane juice at Le Simon under the Martinique AOC, then aged and bottled at Habitation Saint-Etienne. It is well known for its cask-finish releases.

Look to HSE. The cask-finish range is the accessible way in, while old vintages like the HSE Hors d’Age 1960 and single casks sit at the top of the community ratings.

RumX offers the world’s largest selection of rum through our innovative shop-in-shop marketplace, similar to Amazon. For Distillerie du Simon rums, we currently have 292 offers starting from €21.32 across 28 partner shops including delicando, Rhum Attitude, Rum & Co, Total Wine, Whiskysite.nl, Bondston. Our platform compares prices in real-time from specialized rum retailers worldwide, ensuring you always find the best deals.

The RumX database currently contains 337 different rums from Distillerie du Simon. This includes various expressions, limited editions, and bottlings across different age statements and proof levels. Our community has contributed over 5022 reviews for Distillerie du Simon rums, making it one of the most comprehensive resources for exploring this brand’s full range. New releases are added regularly as they become available.

According to the RumX community, HSE Hors d’Age 1960 45% is currently the highest-rated Distillerie du Simon rum with an impressive rating of 9.2/10 based on 22 reviews. This expression has earned praise for its exceptional quality and represents the pinnacle of what Distillerie du Simon has to offer. However, taste is subjective, and we encourage you to explore the full range to find your personal favorite.
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Rating guide

RumX's 0–10 scale is strict. Here's what each band means.

9.0–10.0 Excellent Stash as many as you can afford. Tell no one.
8.0–8.9 Very good Bank a backup. Tell everyone you meet.
7.0–7.9 Good Buy one and recommend it to your friends.
6.0–6.9 Pleasant Solid, super glad I drank it.
5.0–5.9 Average Totally acceptable.
4.0–4.9 Drinkable Not vocally complaining.
3.0–3.9 Poor Wish I was drinking something else.
2.0–2.9 Very poor Nothing nice to say.
1.0–1.9 Unpleasant No, that's not for me.
0.1–0.9 Inedible Pour it out.