1. Home
  2. Tim Lemke

Tim Lemke

Tim is the founder and chief reviewer at Cheap Wine Ratings since 2007.

Tercos Malbec 2008

We’ve recently reviewed Tercos’ Bonardo and were pleasantly surprised by what Tercos is doing with this little know variety.  So here’s the more traditional offering from Tercos, their 2008 Malbec.  For a little more information on this winery and some background on Tercos Malbec, check out our review of the 2007. With the 2008, Tercos […]

Jacob’s Creek Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

In the wine world, everything is relative.  Case in point, I present to you Jacob’s Creek 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve.  The term “Reserve” is typically utilized for the best juice of the vintage, often seeing a little more time in the winemaker’s best oak.  But one winemaker’s best juice is another winemaker’s jug wine.  And […]

Bota Box Malbec

Last night we reviewed a boxed wine, so let’s crack into another box tonight.  This one is produced by Bota Box, a brand that I’ve never reviewed on this site before.  However, I have given their old vine zinfandel kudos in my column in Mutineer Magazine in the past. There’s nothing too fancy about the […]

Seven Red Wine of Spain

One the heels of the red blend review we did yesterday, tonight we’re checking out another red blend called Seven.  This one comes from Spain and is produced by Bodegas Osborne, one of the oldest wine producers in Spain dating back to 1772.  And today, after all those years, the company is still run by […]

Calcu Red Wine from Chile

The wine world is paying close attention to Colchagua Valley.  Topographically and geographically, it’s quite similar to Napa in many respects.  Many fine producers have, and continue to emerge from this growing region.  Recently we had an opportunity to taste an example from Colchagua – Calcu’s 2008 red blend.  Calcu (Magician in the native Mapuche […]

Tapeña Verdejo for Wine Blogging Wednesday #70

In days past there was a regular monthly occurrence called “Wine Blogging Wednesday” when wine bloggers from around the world would all write about a common theme.  There was also a “host” to the event who would write up a summary of all the participants so that you could go to one place to find all the […]

Apothic Red 2009

Alright, I’m going back to a theme we had going last week… checking out new vintages of wines we’ve previously reviewed.  Last year we checked out the 2008 Apothic Red and it was a very interesting wine, so we were glad to be able to revisit it with the 2009 vintage, which we like even […]

Domestic Pinot Grigio Showdown

Pinot Grigio gets a bad wrap.  And I think I’m partially to blame.  Having run an Italian restaurant with a very comprehensive wine list, I was compelled to offer a pinot grigio (or even two) on our list.  But, man it was hard.  Pinot grigio is, in all honesty, my least favorite wine on the […]

Wine Pairing Challenge: Ultimate Omelette

We tried one of these last week and it was fun, so we’re going to try another.  Of course if you missed the first wine pairing challenge, Blackstrap Molasses Shrimp, you can still add your two cents on the best pairing here. I’ll re-explain the background to this challenge, for those who haven’t seen the […]

Peñalolen Sauvignon Blanc – A Citrus Bomb!

Since the last review we did was an updated vintage of a wine we’d previously reviewed, I thought we would continue that trend this week with another.  Not too long ago we reviewed the 2009 Peñalolen Sauvignon Blanc and we’re already checking out the 2010 vintage of this wine. How can that be?  A 2010 […]