Wine is often considered to be an acquired taste but if your looking for an alternative tipple this summer then a bottle of elephant vintage could be the order of the day.
Here in the South African outback one winery have decided to stretch the boundaries of traditional wine making by employing a new member of staff.
Meet Harry - the world's first elephant grape crusher.
Weighing in at 3.5 tonnes African bull elephant Harry has been specially trained to crush thousands of juicy grapes.
Standing in front of a large metal trough 12 ft tall Harry crushes hundred's of grapes in one fowl thrust with his 2 ft wide feet.
Ironically the unusual idea arose between two friends over a bottle of red.
'I was sitting with Ian Withers (owner of Knysna Elephant Park where Harry resides) drinking a few glasses of wine and began explaining the traditional method of grape crushing that has existed for thousands of years,' explains Carel Nel, wine master for the Boplaas vineyard and the man who had the 'big idea'.
'It was then that we realised that an elephant, the heaviest land animal, had never done this kind of work before, so we decided to test it out.' Surprisingly for elephant conservationist Ian and his team at Knysna Elephant Park, 22-year-old Harry had an instant talent for his new job.
'Harry has been around humans for so long that he responds to our requests very readily,' explains Ian.
'He totally understands 'foot up, foot forward and foot down' because we have to check his feet every day and therefore it was very simple to get him to crush up the grapes.' Before the treading takes place, Harry's feet are washed and sterilised and then dried on a towel laid out in front of the trough which held the grapes.
'Harry understood what was going on very quickly,' says Ian.
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