Written by Mika Tanimoto, Owner-Bartender, Bar Little Happiness — Hiroshima’s specialist whisky & rum bar with 1,000+ bottles
Rhum Clément is one of Martinique’s most recognisable rhum agricole brands — a name that appears in serious rum bars worldwide and that represents, within the island’s AOC-regulated rum scene, a particular style of careful, nuanced distillation. Behind the brand is the Hayot family, one of Martinique’s most significant business families, whose influence on the island’s economy and rum industry extends well beyond any single brand.
The Hayot Empire
The Hayot family’s involvement in Martinique’s economy spans multiple sectors — retail, distribution, and rum among them. Their relationship to Rhum Clément is not simply ownership: it is part of a broader engagement with what Martinique produces and exports. Understanding this context helps explain why Rhum Clément occupies the position it does in the international rum market: it is backed by the infrastructure and connections of a family that has been part of Martinique’s commercial life for generations.
The 1970 Vintage
Among the most extraordinary expressions in Rhum Clément’s history is the 1970 vintage — a rhum agricole that has been in cask since a year when many of the people now drinking it were not yet born. Aged rum of this quality and age is genuinely rare; most tropical rum matures so quickly that fifty-year expressions are effectively impossible at commercial scale. The 1970 vintage is one of those bottles that does not simply represent good rum — it represents the intersection of exceptional original spirit, careful stewardship, and the particular luck of a cask that somehow retained what it needed to retain over decades.
Rhum Clément expressions are available at Bar Little Happiness. Read the full Japanese column: little-happiness.jp/columns/rhum-clement-gbh-hayot-family-impact/
Bar Little Happiness | Hiroshima, Japan
Rum & Whisky specialists | 1,000+ bottles | English menu available
Open Mon–Sat 7PM–12:30AM, Sun 7PM–midnight
No cover charge. Walk-ins welcome.
english.little-happiness.jp