The Almost Club April 2024 Edition. 13 wines that almost made it

Not all wines can be great. Plenty are just ‘ok drinks’, and some are just bad…

Here are 13 wines that almost made the silver medal grade in April 2024. Some are just easy drinks; others are just disappointments…

Apricus Hill Semillon 2023

This is an odd Denmark Semillon. I had to double-check that there was no Sauv, as it is all pyrazines and green melon unripe fruit before a bony palate. It’s a green wine with very firm citrussy intensity and all sorts of green bean snappiness. Crunch!. Excellent intensity, but a little more ripe fruit would be welcome.

Best drinking: now. 16.8/20, 89/100. 11.5%, $40.

Cape Barren Native Goose Rosé 2023

McLaren Vale rosé that does what it’s meant to. Light coppery orange, there’s a bit of alpine strawberry freshness to drive it before a diffuse palate that is clean and fresh enough. Ultimately, it passes quickly for a $30 wine, but it’s okay.

Best drinking: now. 16.8/20, 89/100. 13%, $30.

Stockmans Ridge Primrose Rosé 2023

Great packaging for this Orange region rosé. Made from early-picked Orange Shiraz, it’s ultimately too neutral but about right for what rosé like this ‘should’ taste like. It’s clean and fresh with unripe melons and green papaya flavours, but the raw acidity pulls up the palate short, especially at this price.

Best drinking: now. 16.8/20, 89/100. 11.2%, $35.

Cape Barren Native Goose Sauvignon Blanc 2023

A paint-by-numbers Adelaide Hills Sauv that looks a bit green, with some peas and sour lemon flavour. Fresh enough, and plenty varietal, but boring.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 12.5%, $30.

De Bortoli PINOT Pinot Noir 2023

No, I don’t have a stutter. ‘Light and chillable Pinot’ from De Bortoli. But that also translates to a slightly thin, light red. Leafiness is the flavour marker, and this Victorian wine has some nice red cherry raspberry fruit. But that hard-ish leafy edge will not, and it’s just a bit green and mean, especially for a wine that should be easy and ripe.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 13.5%, $20.

Feudo Arancio Rosso Riserva 2019

Full-bodied Nero d’Avola from Sicily that reminds why ‘Riserva’ often delivers too much oak. It’s drying, oak-etched and a bit heavy, with chewy caramel barrel character and oak tannins as the dominant feature. All that artifice is unneeded, and it covers up the bright Nero fruit. Great concentration underneath but a drying wine that can’t rise above the winemaking.

Best drinking: nowish. 16.5/20, 88/100. 13.5%, $40.

Mottura Negroamaro Salento 2022

Chunky, chocolatey and bluntly obvious Puglian red. Cocoa powder and chocolate peanut with a tarry, treacly palate. Tastes warmer than 13%. There is plenty of sweet chocolatey flavour, but it is a bit blunt.

Best drinking: nowish. 16.5/20, 88/100. 13%, $35.

Stockmans Ridge Rider Pinot Gris 2023

When phenolic pithy stricture overwhelms the gentle pear fruit, then Gris never works. Plenty of ambition in this Pinot Gris, but it just comes across as a bit firm and ungenerous. Would probably be better with more ripeness/ residual sugar.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 12.3%, $30.

Maso di Mezzo Teroldego Rotaliano 2021

A bit of a miss. Leafy redcurrant and bony red licorice, the palate a little underdone and weedy but drinkable in a bitter/curranty red fruit mode. That bitter edge grates after a while though.

Best drinking: now. 16/20, 87/100. 13%, $30.

Smith & Hooper Pinot Grigio 2023

This is a bit of a nothing vintage for this typically consistent Wrattonbully Pinot Grigio. Hay, unripe peach and green melon fruit that is forward and looks chubbier the harder. Varietal though.

Best drinking: now. 16/20, 87/100. 13%, $19

Hill-Smith Estate Eden Valley Chardonnay 2022

I’ve never got this lean ‘unwooded Chardonnay never went away’ wine. It’s bony, raw, and only driven by some sulphide lift. I don’t get it (or enjoy it).

Best drinking: now. 15.8/20, 86/100. 13%, $25.

Hirsch Hill Chardonnay 2023

Curious Yarra Valley Chardonnay. It doesn’t taste of anything – the forward stone fruit nose is flat and lacks any definition, the palate creamed apple nothingness. Most of the fruit character is missing. Odd.

Best drinking: now. 15.8/20, 86/20. 13.3%, $38.

Les Dauphins Côtes du Rhône Reserve Rosé 2023

A cheap-tasting rosé. Pink strawberries and cream with a sweet and sour unripe edge. Estery and looks a bit gluey. A miss.

Best drinking: now. 15.8/20, 86/100. 12.5%, $20