Martinique Clement Distillery
Rhum Clement is one of Martinique's oldest and most respected distilleries. The Habitations Clement was founded in 1887, but didn't begin producing rhum in earnest until the French Alcohol shortages during World War I.
The Agricole style of rum arose from several factors namely the creation by Napoleon of the sugar beet industry, which decimated sugar prices. This left sugar growers in French Territories with any extreme excess of raw sugar and very little incentive to process it. The easiest way to recoup the investment was to fresh press the cane and distill immediately rather than spend energy refining the sugar.
It wasn't until the French began taxing rum imports that Agricole Rhum truly began to flourish. It became the only affordable Caribbean rhum on the continent and has become ingrained in the French drinking culture. In a lot of ways Agricole Rhum can be compared to Armagnac. They are both distilled on traditional alembic column stills, rather than the industrial columns of the Spanish style or the funk pot stills of the British. Because of the inherent instability of raw cane fermentation tends to be quite high ester, resulting in extremely funky flavorful white rhums.
As these rhums age those esters interact with the complex chemicals naturally present in oak to create some of the most complex and unique spirits available anywhere in the world. This special cask was distilled from 7 varieties of cane and aged in New American Oak and bottled at cask strength.
Rhum Clément was first established in 1887 when Martinique political icon Homère Clément bought Domaine de l’Acajou in Le François, Martinique. Homere’s innovative thinking and political influence during the Caribbean sugar crisis resulted in economic success and a unique type of rum from Martinique: Rhum Agricole, distilled from fresh-pressed sugarcane juice. Today we follow in the footsteps of the “God-Father” of Agricole by continuing to combine tradition and modernity with each bottle of Rhum Clément.
