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About Cheap Wine Ratings

Who’s Behind Cheap Wine Ratings?

This site was founded by Tim Lemke in Cincinnati, Ohio.  An avid wine consumer with a knowledgeable palate and a diligent approach to evaluating wines.  Although he doesn’t have a fancy title, like sommelier, his knowledge on wine has been gained through years of tasting and judging wine.  Tim does most of the reviews on this site.

Tim has also been a column contributor to Mutineer Magazine and judges for competitions such as the Cincinnati International Wine Festival.

Feedback and suggestions are encouraged.  You can contact Tim by sending an e-mail to tim (at) cheapwineratings.com

What is Cheap Wine Ratings?

Cheap Wine Ratings is all about finding good wine at affordable prices.

For years we’ve been searching for the best value wines.  It’s a quest to identify good wines for everyday drinking and hidden gems that you may have to hunt a little bit to find.  Wading through all the choices and finding the best picks is no easy task, so we wanted to share our findings with other wine lovers like you.  And thus, cheapwineratings.com was born.

The process for rating wines on this site is systematic, with numerous qualitative characteristics evaluated to determine a wine’s rating.  That rating is coupled with a descriptive review to give you a sense of how good a wine is and why you’ll enjoy it—or not.  We provide ratings based on a 100 point system, but don’t just go by the numbers… there are a lot nuances and personal preferences that will determine your personal favorites and we hope that our tasting notes help you pick those out.

While we use a 100 point system, most wines we review end up somewhere between the mid-70’s to the low-90’s.  If you go by the numbers, here’s a good way to think about them:

  • 80 and below: Don’t bother
  • 81-83: Drinkable wine
  • 84-86: Good
  • 87-89: Very good
  • 90+: Exceptional

The general rule of thumb on cheapwineratings.com is that wines featured will be $25 or less.  We may go over that price occasionally, but that will be rare and noted.  In our opinion, you don’t need to spend a lot to get great wine, you just need to make informed choices.

Wine Samples

We do accept wine samples from producers interested in having their wines reviewed on this site.  However, we cannot guarantee a review.  If you are interested in sending samples, please contact tim (at) cheapwineratings.com.