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Wine boss face war of words over blog

Apr 26 2009 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

FORMER vineyard boss Tony Hindhaugh is enduring the grapes of wrath over claims his wine blog isn’t vintage stuff but a copy of leading reviewers’ work.

One has now reported him to Facebook for claiming her work as his own on Space4Wine, a group he set up on the social networking site, and a publisher has revealed intends to get the site blacklisted.

Tynemouth-born Tony, 39, discusses the wine industry on pages he created on Twitter, Facebook and Bloggers.com.

Yet the Sunday Sun can reveal five articles found on Space4 Wine, which he claims to have penned, bear an uncanny resemblance to articles penned by award-winning luminaries of the wine-writing world.

Some appear to have been copied word for word.

His current Facebook group Space4Wine boasts more than 2800 members and includes films and articles about the wine industry, some of which appear to have been plagiarised from other writers.

A Few Things About Champers, posted on the site by Mr Hindhaugh on April 7, is almost identical to a piece written by Kathryn McWhirter, the former drinks correspondent for the Independent on Sunday who wrote and edited the Which? Wine Guide.

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