Kiwi Link to RateBeer Rumble

Apparently noted wine writer Rory Gibson wrote an article on organic beers for the Courier Mail in Australia.

Rather than actually taste the beers, he decided to pick a review of each off the RateBeer website and use them. I guess it could be charitably called research.

The reviews were well written with plenty of thought having gone into the descriptions -"bubblegum, slight cedar, straw, citrus zest. Playful on the palate..." you get the idea.

Mr Gibson scathingly concludes "Personally, I think people who describe beer in such a way have their heads up their own cellar. The main thing is that the beers are here..."

That from a wine writer who seems unable to accept that beer can have aromas and flavours and certainly wouldn't ever deign to try them himself.

One can only speculate about his reaction to a writer who cut and pasted a couple of internet wine reviews into an article, slagged off the vocabulary of wine tasting and claimed it was a real article.

The Ratebeer guys are understandably unhappy.

And the Kiwi connection? One of the reviews was by Stu - a Wellington home brewer and beer enthusiast.

He wasn't credited by Mr Gibson.