PJ Rigney travelled through the Serengeti and found a tree with fruit that hangs down like sausages on strings. Back home in Leitrim, nettles grew that by the same logic ought to do something similar for the body. He put the two together in a still in Drumshanbo.
Expert description
Sausage Tree Pure Irish Vodka is an Irish Vodka from The Shed Distillery in Drumshanbo, slow distilled with Irish grain, fruit from Kigelia africana and wild Irish nettle, bottled at 43%.
The Shed Distillery was founded in 2014 in Drumshanbo, County Leitrim, and is probably best known for Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin. Behind the whole operation stands PJ Rigney, a man with a well documented urge to travel a long way after a raw material.
Kigelia africana is called the sausage tree because of the large, heavy fruit that hangs down from the branches on long stalks. The fruit has carried a reputation for purifying properties in African folk medicine for centuries, and it was exactly that property Rigney recognised in the wild Irish nettle growing in the woodland around the distillery.
The distillation runs slowly, so grain, fruit and nettle all get time to give up their share. The result lands somewhere between a classic vodka and something more botanical. There is fruit and herb in it, yet it never becomes a gin, and the 43% gives it a little more body than a standard 40% would have.
Tasting notes
Nose
Clean with a green pull from the nettle. Behind it sits a mild, almost melon-like fruitiness.
Palate
Full and lightly sweet with clear herbal character across the middle. The grain holds the base, and the fruit arrives as a round sensation rather than as outright flavour.
Finish
Medium and dry with a green, faintly bitter trail from the nettle.
Specifications
Name: Sausage Tree Pure Irish Vodka
Distillery: The Shed Distillery
Region/Country: Drumshanbo, Ireland
Type: Irish Vodka
ABV: 43%
Size: 70 CL
Distillation method: Slow distilled with Irish grain, fruit from Kigelia africana and wild Irish nettle
Serving suggestion: 4 cl with ice cold soda water, a squeeze of lime and a thick wedge of orange, as the distillery recommends.
Flavour profile
Herbal · Full · Lightly fruity · Dry close
Did you know?
The distillery bar is called the Honey Badger Bar after the honey badger, an animal that eats carpenter bees burrowed inside the bark of the sausage tree and takes the stings as part of the deal. PJ Rigney uses it as an image for his own motto: nature has no place for the weak.
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