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Tim Lemke

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

Bridgman Chardonnay

The first few times I saw this wine I thought it was Bridgeman, with an “e” in the name, but it’s Bridgman without an “e.”  It’s funny how your mind plays tricks on you like that… and I swear it’s not from drinking too much wine.  The wine is named after William B. Bridgman, a […]

Down Under Chardonnay by Crane Lake

You won’t see much marketing for Crane Lake wines out there, but you will find them in many supermarkets.  Crane Lake is another label from cheap wine mogul Fred Franzia and his Bronco Wine Company.  These are the same folks behind the legendary Charles Shaw (aka Two Buck Chuck) that you’ll find in Trader Joe’s […]

Alamos Chardonnay

Continuing with the Chardonnay series, today we’re checking out an Argentine Chardonnay from Alamos, a value wine label produced by Bodega Catena Zapata in Argentina. Catena Zapata has its roots in Argentine winemaking going back to 1902, when Nicola Catena planted his first Malbec vines.  The winery faced many challenges and changes over the years, […]

Motos Liberty Chardonnay

A couple weeks ago I did a review of a wine from a relatively new wine brand, Motos Liberty Pinot Gigio.  And today I’m checking out another wine from them, their Chardonnay.  The Pinot Grigio I was not able to taste in a blind lineup, but this one was tasted blind — and qualitatively the […]

Coastal Ridge Chardonnay

It’s been a while since we’ve done a series on Chardonnay, and given its popularity I thought I should revisit it.  So, I pulled the a few bottles of it I had gathered in my tasting queue to do a blind tasting.  There were no absolute rock stars in the lot, but there were a […]

Randall Harris Merlot

Let me actually start this review with a disclaimer.  There’s a lot of discussion among wine reviewers/wine bloggers about potential “conflict of interest” related to their reviews.  The conflict scenario is typically an instance when a review is done for a wine and the reviewer has received something of value from the producer of the […]

Pinot Grigio Roundup

Here’s a roundup of the 7 Pinot Grigios/Pinot Gris that we recently reviewed.  This gives you a quick reference of how they all stacked up. To be honest, I wasn’t that excited about doing a Pinot Grigio series.  Let’s face it, cheap Pinot Grigio can often leave something to be desired.  But I was pleasantly […]

Motos Liberty Pinot Grigio

I have one more wine to review for my Pinot Grigio series, this one from Motos Liberty.  Now to be clear, the past six Pinot Grigio/Gris reviews were all from a blind tasting, but this one was not.  I received this bottle as a sample a couple days after I did the blind tasting.  Rather […]

Carmenet Pinot Grigio

This is the second wine from Carmenet that I’ve reviewed, both reviews have been done since they were acquired by the Bronco Wine Company.  Bronco is the company behind the infamous Two Buck Chuck and dozens of other cheap wine brands.  I personally have a love/hate thing with Bronco… obviously, by the name of this […]

Lucien Albrecht Pinot Gris Cuvée Romanus

Maison Lucien Albrecht has roots in Alsatian winemaking going all the what back to 1425, when Romanu Albrecht established the family in the Alsatian town of Thann, near the Swiss border.  The Albrecht family has been involved in winemaking ever since, although the family moved to Orschwir in 1698.  Needless to say, there are generations […]