Tim Lemke

Viña La Rosa La Capitana Carmenere

January 12, 2010 Tim Lemke 0

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Viña La Rosa is one of the oldest wineries in Chile, established in 1824 by don Francisco Ignacio Ossa y Mercado. That’s a name and a half, if you ask me. I’m not going to get into a lot of background on this wine, but instead jump ahead to, “90 alert, 90 alert!!!” As a […]

Odfjell Armador Carménère

January 6, 2010 Tim Lemke 0

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The story of Odjfell Vineyards began about 25 years ago when Norwegian ship owner Dan Odfjell acquired property in the Maipo Valley of Chile. However, the planting of vineyards didn’t begin until about 15 years ago. They now have vineyards in a few different Chilean appellations. In addition to wine production, they also breed Norwegian […]

Santa Carolina Carménère

January 5, 2010 Tim Lemke 0

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Let’s check out another ten dollar Carménère today, this one from Santa Carolina. Although the popularity of Chilean wines has only recently exploded in the US, Santa Carolina has been around since 1875. Founded by Luis Pereyra Cotapos, it was named after his wife, Carolina Iñiguez Vicuña. The roots of wine production at Santa Carolina […]

Viña Carmen Carménère

January 4, 2010 Tim Lemke 0

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As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Carménère is a variety once used in Bordeaux wines that has recently made a resurgence. It was always a difficult grape in Bordeaux, due mostly to late ripening. And then it was wiped in France, in part by a phylloxera infestation in the 1880’s. For years it was considered […]

Terra Andina Altos Carménère Carignan

January 3, 2010 Tim Lemke 0

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As I think back on the wines we’ve tasted over the past year, one stands out in my mind as being really interesting… and I’m just now getting it posted to the site. Perhaps it stands out, in part, because we tasted it near the end of the year, but it is also just a […]

Castell Trautberg Silvaner Traminer

December 23, 2009 Tim Lemke 0

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I have one more Silvaner from Castell to share with you, but this one isn’t 100% Silvaner. It’s a blend of 80% Silvaner and 20% Traminer, which is technically a family of grape varieties—the most well known of which is Gewürztraminer—but in Germany they tend to refer to all grapes from this family as just […]

Castell Kugelspiel Silvaner

December 22, 2009 Tim Lemke 0

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Continuing the theme from yesterday, today’s review is another Silvaner from Castell. I mentioned in the review of Castell Trocken Silvaner that it is from Germany, but I didn’t mention which part of Germany. Both the Trocken and the Kugelspiel come from the Franken wine region in the state of Bavaria. This is one of […]

Castell Trocken Silvaner

December 21, 2009 Tim Lemke 0

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Silvaner is a grape variety that we haven’t reviewed on Cheap Wine Ratings, until now. It’s a variety that is grown primarily in Germany and the Alsatian region in France, which is one of my favorite regions for dry white wines. This particular Silvaner is from Germany, which surprisingly is also a first on this […]

Crane Lake Brut

December 20, 2009 Tim Lemke 0

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It’s funny how often I hear people proclaim that they are not wine snobs, yet as I sat down to write this post I thought to myself that there are going to be some haters out there who post comments about how I must be out of my mind for finding this to be good. […]

Domaine Laurier Brut

December 17, 2009 Tim Lemke 0

5.49K

As a reviewer of cheap wines, value wines, budget wines, or whatever you want to call them, I taste a lot of inexpensive wines. Not all can be great. Fortunately, thanks to technology, most cheap wine is much better than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, that didn’t help this one. I tasted this wine […]

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