The Venerable John T., a noted cleric of our missionary diocese, is engaged in an innovative outreach project – wine making from the most varied of nature’s resources.

This particular hobby combines his love of birds (he and his family are keen “Twitchers”) and wine making. How? Well, this is the narrative as I understand it:

It’s amazing what wine can be made from: honey, flowers (dandelions, roses, jasmine), leaves (walnut, oak, elderberry), seeds (corn, rice, almonds, coffee), stems (rhubarb, grapevine), and roots (parsnips, ginger, beetroot, carrot)! But nothing too oily; e.g., coconut, peanuts, chocolate. Some of John’s wines have more than one basic ingredient: Beetroot and Pineapple, Clove and Ginger.

But how do you bring bird watching into wine making?

Well, each variety of wine is named after a Tasmanian bird. But this naming is not haphazard! The name of the key ingredient in a wine is matched with the name of a Tasmanian bird that the wine maker has sighted and photographed. Moreover, the name of the key ingredient and the name of the bird must be alliterative – this is essential!

Hence, Wattle Bird Walnut Leaf,  Firetail Fig and Banana  and Albatross Apricot and Date.

Some sample labels:

Outreach activity? Yes, invite friends to guess ingredients and suggest labels. A fun time. Enjoy!

Note: this outreach activity comes with health benefits 1 Timothy 5:23 and a health warning! – Proverbs 23: 29-35

PS  I can personally commend the wines 🙂