Would you drink something that someone else has spat out?

Tasmanian distiller Peter Bignell hates waste so much he has made a spirit out of the spat-out wine from a wine conference.

Yes, you read that right.

The idea came to him at the Rootstock festival in Sydney, a gathering of wine makers from around the world promoting sustainable wine making practices.

Mr Bignell was in a group tasting wines, much of which was being spat out into a bucket in the centre of the room.

"I hate waste, absolutely hate waste," he told Helen Shield on ABC Radio Hobart.

"That bucket in the middle of the room with all the dregs of the wine and everyone's spit in it, that's a waste, that's going to get tipped down the drain.

"I said 'If I took that [spit bucket] home and distilled it and brought it back next year, who would drink it?' and I think everybody's hands went up."

Mr Bignell arranged for all the wine dregs to be collected from last year's Rootstock so he could make a spirit from them.

"We got 500 litres of wine," he said.

Waste-conscious distiller Peter Bignell built his biodiesel-powered distillery out of recycled materials. ( ABC Radio Hobart: Carol Rääbus )

"There were bits of bickies and cheese and the odd bit of beer in there."

Rather than ship the 500 litres of wine and spit back to Tasmania, Mr Bignell found the closest distillery to the event and used their stills to turn the dregs into a spirit.

The product is like a brandy, though as it has not been aged in barrels it cannot be called a brandy.

In keeping with its origins the drink is called Kissing A Stranger and will be available to buy later this month.

Mr Bignell returned to Sydney to try his creation earlier this year.

"It was very pleasant," he said.

"It had a lot of mouth feel, should I say?

"It did have texture to it, that's for sure, but not in the way of spit."

Is drinking distilled spit safe?

Associate professor in food microbiology at the University of Tasmania, Tom Ross, said while the idea of the drink was hard to stomach, it should be safe to consume.

"Mostly what you'd be worried about is transmission of microorganisms, germs," he said.

"But the heat in the distillation process should get rid of most of those.

"The rest should be fairly harmless because they were foods before you started; [the] only thing that's been added is the saliva.

"I don't think there's much of a health risk from it."