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Tim Lemke

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

Montevina Zinfandel

One way that you can save some scratch on your wine is to buy wine produced in regions other than the really popular ones.  When most people think of California wine, they think of Napa or Sonoma.  But in most cases you’ll end up paying a premium for wines from those regions.  Montevina Winery is […]

Masked Rider Zinfandel

Let’s start with something positive… I love the label on this Zinfandel.  Other than that, it’s just OK.  Not bad, but just OK.  And it is a good deal. Masked Rider wine is produced by the Panther Rock Wine Company, founded by fourth generation descendants of the Franzia family, which first produced wines in 1896.  […]

Brazin Old Vine Zin

I feel guilty right now.  Guilty that I haven’t shared this review with you sooner.  You see, I take my tasting notes in sessions where I taste several wines in a category in one sitting.  Then later I’ll do some background research on the wines and write up the review along with my tasting notes.  […]

Four Vines Zinfandel – Old Vine Cuvee

I first discovered Four Vines Zinfandels a couple years ago at the Cincinnati International Wine Festival, where they instantly became my favorite wines out of hundreds at that event.  And yet I had never heard of them before that event. In my conversation with one of the reps, she shared that Four Vines refuses to […]

Tapeña Garnacha – Seeing Red for the First Time

There is a thing that wine bloggers do each month called Wine Blogging Wednesday and today is the 67th time this event has occurred.  It’s a day when numerous wine bloggers from around the world all write about the same thing.  There is always a “host” for Wine Blogging Wednesday who picks the theme and […]

X Winery Lake County Nova Vineyard Zinfandel

Over the past couple years I’ve become a full-fledged fan of X Winery.  They are consistently putting out some tasty wine at reasonable prices.  I won’t say their prices are ultra-cheap, but they are reasonable and the quality-to-price ratio tends to be excellent with X Winery.  This Zinfandel gives me another reason to love them. […]

Ottimino Zinfinity

Ottimino is a vineyard that produces nothing but Zinfandel.  Most of their wines are in the $30+ price range, with the exception of their Zinfinity brand.  The vineyard for Zinfinity is right next to the Rancho Bello vineyard in the Russian River Valley, but they are quite different. The vines for Zinfinity are the youngest […]

Francis Ford Coppola Director’s Cut Zinfandel

If you’re into movies, I’m sure you know the name Francis Ford Coppola as a great director.  And if you’re into wine, you’ve probably noticed that his name is on some wines too.   In fact, he’s behind more wine than you may realize.  In addition to the wine that bears his name, he is also […]

7 Deadly Zins

This past week, issue #10 of Mutineer Magazine hit the shelves, including my Wine Steals column which is all about Zinfandel in this issue.  There’s one Zinfandel I didn’t include in the article, despite the fact that it may be the one wine more people ask me about than any other and that one is […]

Dievole Fourplay Rosso

One of the things that wine geeks like me get geeked out about is tasting wine varieties that we don’t get to taste every day.  Here’s a red blend that’s packed with four varieties that are native to Sicily.  Those varieties include Frappato Nero, Nerello Cappuccio, Nebello Mascalese and Nero d’Avola, blended at 25% of […]