The Almost Club April 2025 edition – 11 wines that almost made it this month

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

Here are 11 wines that almost made the silver medal, Australian Wine and Drinks Review ‘pass’ grade in April 2025.

From friendly, sub $20 quaffs to not-so-cheap disappointments and a shedload of ‘ok’ wines in between, this isn’t meant to be a hit list, more a reflection on the wines that almost made it this month for various reasons.

Five Vineyard Sangiovese 2023

From the Plenty region, which isn’t a recognised GI or a known region, but a part of the Melbourne rural area that isn’t quite the Yarra Valley and isn’t quite the Sunbury GI. The wines are made by Rob Dolan FWIW. This is an easy red berry Sangiovese that just needs more oomph. Light, blackberry and raspberry fruit in this Sangiovese, with some oak sweetness to lift it up, followed by a slightly lean red berry palate and a kick of furry Sangiovese tannins. It’s refreshing enough, but a bit underpowered to be really convincing. Easy drink, though.

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

Silkwood The Bowers Merlot 2000

So much ambition in these Sillkwood wines. Probably too much and they get a bit dry and extractive. This is a very serious Pemberton Merlot to fit the narrative – mint, leather and a swathe of vanillan oak. Mulchy minty fruit, and then the oak rides in and swamps it. Power, yes, but it’s minty, astringent and lacks the generosity to carry off the tannins and earth. Depth gets it a bronze medal, though.

Best drinking: nowish, no hurry. 16.5//20, 88/100. 13% $30.

Silkwood Estate The Bowers Sauvignon Blanc 2024

Grassy, fresh and juicy West Aussie Sauv. Lots of melon and ripe stonefruit, if just a bit reductive. Plenty varietal and crisp, if a bit one toned.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 13%, $30.

Small Gully The Formula Cab Shiraz 2021

It can be a wild ride with the Small Gully Wines – some are super concentrated powerhouses, others are just OTT. This red is the latter. Coffeed, roasted and porty, this is very luscious but lacks the energy of the better Small Gully wines. It’s such a heady thing, boozy and burnished by oak, but also so mouthfilling and a long fly of coffee chocolate richness. Lavish, long, but hard to drink.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 15.2%, $25.

Yalumba Y Series Prosecco NV

This is more than fine drinking for $12.99 bargain. Snappy green apple fruit, a little white flowers, lots of froth and then a light and fresh, gently appley palate. Not amazing concentration, but unabashed drinkability and well done.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 10.5%, $18.

Campos do Viento Tempranillo 2022

Simple Spanish Tempranillo. Red berries, leather, a little dusty flatness and then tart and sticky tannins. Only medium bodied, a bit leathery, it all just falls away. A $10-$12 wine, no more.

Best drinking: now. 16/20, 87/100. 13.5%, $20.

Nicolis Valpolicella 2022

Basic Valpolicella masquerading as something more. Forward, leafy and a bit thin, some underpowered red cherry fruit, a little leaf and a thin finish. €3 stuff.

Best drinking: now. 16/20, 87/100. 12.5%, $40.

Small Gully Isobella Sparkling Pinot Noir 2005

Adelaide Hills sparkling from this Barossa producer. Disgorged in 2013 (8 years on lees!) and showing the tiredness of something long disgorged and sitting around. Golden and looking flat, it’s a bronze-golden colour, and the freshness has departed, leaving aldehydes and not much else. The shape is there to indicate a wine that would have likely been great in its day, but now looking creaky.

Best drinking now: 15.5/20, 86/100. 12.5%, $50

Almigo de La Tierra Organic Garnacha Tempranillo 2022

Organic but cheap-tasting Spanish red. Dusty, thin, already forward. Cardboardy and lacks any fruit. Leathery already. Misses the mark.

Best drinking: now. 15/20, 85/100. 13.5%, $20.

Campos de Luz Garnacha 2022

Confected Garnacha propped up by jubey residual sugar before dusty tannins. Lowest common denominator Spanish red.

Best drinking: now. 15/20, 85/100. 13.5%, $20.