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

Here are 45 wines that almost made the silver medal, Australian Wine and Drinks Review ‘pass’ grade in spring 2026.

From friendly, sub-$20 quaffs to not-so-cheap disappointments and a shedload of ‘ok’ wines in between, this collection has it all. Importantly, this isn’t a shit list, but a reminder that life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows (and some wines don’t need to be gold medal winners to be drinkable).

Let’s dive into a few of the almosts:

Bremerton Special Release Tempranillo Graciano 2022

You don’t usually die wondering with a Bremerton red. Flavour? Yeah, no worries. But this Tempranillo blend is quite moderate. There’s a slick purple fruit viscosity that drives it, though the back end tends a bit drying. There’s some leathery length, with layers of dark-berry fruit over minty tannins. It’s ok, just not quite as convincing.

Best drinking: over the next five years. 16.8/20, 89/100. 13.5%, $26.

Castel Firmian Lagrein 2023

Nailing the balance (and tempering the rusticity) in Lagrein can throw up some challenges, no matter where it’s grown. This Trentino red leans too far into the spearminty side of the ripeness spectrum, with a tangy, raspy sort of mode, with the cherry, boysenberry, crunchy fruit hitting the chewy tannins. I say that, but it’s also quite refreshing in a cool sort of mode. Almost.

Best drinking: over the next five years. 16.8/20, 89/100. 13%, $35.

Cooks Lot Allotment 1010 Shiraz 2023

The singular challenge with the Angullong reds is the phenolic ripeness, with wines that frequently feel warm and heady but with unripe tannins. This feels like every bit the cool-climate Shiraz. White pepper and celery, the bony palate throwing up some clovey spice but tending lean and crunchy and a slightly furry bitter finish. Almost.

Best drinking: nowish. 16.8/20, 89/100. 13.5%, $25.

Cupitts Luncheon Claret 2022

Nothing wrong with a luncheon red, and this Hilltops red (of unknown varieties) does what it says on the label. Hat tip to the Cupitts family for the intention. Spritzy raspberry, red licorice, ferny brackish pyrazine alongside some blackberry fruit. Acidity is high for 14%, but it also makes this crisp and crunchy enough, if a pretty angular thing. Not undrinkable.

Best drinking: right now. 16.8/20, 89/100. 14%, $29.

De Bortoli Cool Climate Pinot Noir 2024

De Bortoli clearly see ‘cool climate’ as a USP for modern wine, which is pretty interesting. This was made by Kate Webber, ie Steve Webber & Leanne De Bortoli’s daughter. Bright, raspberry and varietal Pinot with easy red fruit, a lightness to the mid-palate, and a light chew. It’s a bit hollow through the middle, but tastes like Pinot. It’s fine for $25.

Best drinking: now. 16.8/20, 89/100. 13.7%, $25.

Feudo Arancio Nero d’Avola 2023

Bright, clean, simple modern Nero. Only just medium-bodied; it tastes of cola and molasses and cola nut, the finish tart and bitter in a quite refreshing way. It’s primary, open, authentic. Maybe a bit too simple, super honest though. Recommended this for a Sicilian slice.

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

Forrest Riesling 2025

Forward, juicy, off-dry Riesling that has intensity, if not the perfect balance. It’s a slightly blunt, chubby wine driven by a bit of sherbet and ripe fruit, with candied sweetness of a very light form obscuring the flavours, even though it has plenty of flavour. Almost.

Best drinking: nowish. 16.8/20, 89/100. 12.5%, $30.

La Sorda Rioja Vendimia Seleccionada 2021

Fudgey, oak, old-school Rioja with a chocolate-fudge American oak dust richness. Has a forward nose, dusty tannins, and a earthy streak, the mode more about barrel than fruit. Not short on flavour, though, and value is pretty good.

Best drinking: now or in a decade. 16.8/20, 89/100. 14%, $40.

Meerea Park Alexander Munro Shiraz 2023

Leathery, forward and slightly volatile old-school release of this serious Hunter red. Mulberry plum and a bit of horse and charcuterie with a slightly sour palate. There’s some gently earthy red Hunter fruit in the middle, and it’s not short, though it also looks slightly flat and a bit leathery. A bad bottle? I hope so.

Best drinking: now. 16.8/20, 89/100. 13.5%, $120.

Paisley Cashmere Riesling 2025

Derek from Paisley makes bargain reds, but I’ve never warmed to this Eden Valley Riesling. It’s a bit forward and appley – it’s a little flat rather than defined. Apple juice, hay, with acidity that only defines the palate late in the piece. An almost wine.

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

Paisley Tartan Montepulciano 2023

Heavyweight Barossa Monte. Syrupy, grainy, leathery. Grainy plush fruit wand, warm, breathy alcohol, with this forward, leathery, dusty richness that feels more spirit than cosseting flavour. All a bit much, but also, shitloads of flavour.

Best drinking: no hurry. 16.8/20, 89/100. 14% $35.

Paisley Velvet Grenache 2024

This sweet and luscious Barossa Grenache brings the generosity, though it tips a bit too far. Very ripe, glycerol-sweet, grainy, ripe Barossa Grenache with a caramel-and-coffee sort of profile. Less would be more, but no doubting the impact here either.

Best drinking: within the next five years. 16.8/20, 89/100. 14.9%, $35. Would I buy it? A glass.

Small Gully Wines The Formula Zibibbo 2023

There’s plenty of old vine Zibibbio/Muscat/Frontignac still planted around the Barossa, so why not make a fragrant white? This is a crisp, lightly fragrant and crunchy expression of a dry Muscat. Some Turkish delight and a nice, fresh, and simply juicy musky palate. A bit monotone but floral and crunchy, with solid expression.

Best drinking: now. 16.8/20, 89/100. 12.9%, $25.

Angullong Fossil Hill Chardonnay 2023

Odd. Yoghurty, oak tannins, worked and a bit sour. Spicy oak, slightly sweet and sour. It’s not bad, but the balance is off.

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

Angullong Fossil Hill Montepulciano 2023

This has dark berry fruit, some new leather and cola nut. There’s a leanness and a confected edge with a lack of palate flesh to balance the tart acidity, topped off with alcohol warmth. Needs a bit more generosity to be delicious.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 14%, $30.

Angullong Fossil Hill Shiraz 2023

Raspy and raw Orange Shiraz. Some nice floral and peppery cranberry notes on the nose, but the palate is too firm, warm and intrusively acidic for any real enjoyment.

Best drinking: nowish. 16.5/20, 88/100. 14.5%, $30.

Angullong Fossil Hill Tempranillo 2023

Leather. Extractive. Dark berry and cedar. Hardish acid and raw oak tannins. Has some mid-palate richness at least. Just needs more juice through the middle.

Best drinking: nowish. 16.5/20, 88/100. 14.5%, $30.

Asconi Muscat Ice Wine NV

A Moldovan ice wine, which is fun in itself. This appears to be a 2023 bottling, and what counts against it is that it’s just a bit too forward. Brassy, golden honey and beeswax with a figgy thickness. Broad and a bit diffuse, this looks a bit advanced and sweet and sour, but with a generosity that is undeniable in there too.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 10.5%, $45

Astrale Chianti 2024

Entry-level Chianti and feels it – sour blackberry and raspberry fruit thins out on the finish, and then raw tannins take over. It tastes like proper Chianti, if a bit clumsy and lean, with 2024’s cool writ large; it does the job (but no more).

Best drinking: over the next five years. 16.5/20, 88/100. 12.5%, $20.

Bests Individual Block Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2022

Bests reds don’t sell for sub-$20 all that often, which makes this Aldi-exclusive red a win. Grampians fruit too, sourced from the Sugarloaf Creek Vineyard. Slightly sour, a little leafy, with lots of pencilly blackcurrant fruit. The flavours don’t quite gel – a bit sweet and sour – but it does have flavour and some of that blackberry fruit pastille Grampians charisma for just $15.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 14.5%, $15.

Castello di Meleto Teatrico Millesimato 2020

This is a curious wine – an ambitious Tuscan sparkling rosé (made from Sangiovese) that doesn’t quite feel congruent. The mode is more forward than it should, before a red apple palate that looks sweet and sour. Yeah, no.

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

Chateau Tanunda 50 Year Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon 2022

Ambition seems to have gotten ahead of this wine. Plenty of licorice, dark fruit impact, but that comes with a certain bitter, ungenerous edge too, that dips into leathery tannins without genuine palate width. It’s firm and powerful, but the middle of this wine feels like it’s missing.

Best drinking: will it get better or just dry out? Probably safer to drink early. 16.5/20, 88/100. 14.5%, $80.

Duc de Montgerand Costières de Nîmes 2024

Ignore the score; this $11.99 Aldi red is just fine for $11.99. A blend of Grenache Syrah Mourvèdre, this has bright purple jubey fruit, powdery tannins, a little mushroom, a much more fancy wine than the price suggests. What drags the score down a little is the less-clean, dirty-socks edge, but the character is pretty solid. This is fine.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 14.5%, $11.99.

Il Vignaiolo Sangiovese 2024

Basic varietal Sangiovese that’s just fine for $18. Forest berry fruit, little in the way of oak, a bit jagged acid and ferrous tannins. Leaner 2024 mode is the story again here. Simple fare that still feels well put together.

Best drinking: nowish, no hurry. 16.5/20, 88/100. 12.5%, $20.

Mottura Negroamaro 2024

You don’t die wondering with these Mottura reds either. A thick, leathery, dried-out leather and saddles, baked and drying, with little fruit but lots of caramel and leathery tannins. Has a very authentic Negroamaro black bitterness, but gee, the drying and thick palate is hard going.

Best drinking: over the next five years. 16.5/20, 88/100. 13%, $35.

Paisley Corduroy Cabernet Sauvignon 2022

There aren’t many misses in the Paisley reds; this is a rare one. Minty sappy Barossa Cab with some mixed ripeness a bit of menthol and some raspy acidity. A pretty lean thing given the alcohol; it’s ok, but I just want balance.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 14%, $35.

Pikes Luccio Fiano 2026

Another outlier; this is my least favourite Pikes wine. It’s light, crunchy, fresh but flavourless. Unripe pear, medium acidity, but not much else. It’s fine, bronze medal stuff, but lacks flavour.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 12%, $28.

Renzaglia Off-Dry Riesling 2025

The sweetness is unnecessary in this Orange Riesling; it makes the package look forward, and the sweetness overshadows the delicacy. Candy fruit is the only flavour, as the citrusy character underneath is overridden. Balance is just not there.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 10.3%, $38.

Tahbilk Chardonnay 2025

Golden straw yellow; this is a chubby white with obvious creamed peach and hessian. Bluntly oaky banana cream, peach fruit and low acid. There is juiciness here, but it remains a slightly too flabby wine.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 12.5%, $21.95.

Terre à Terre Crayères Vineyard Late Harvest 2024

Late harvest Wrattonbully Sauvignon Blanc is the mode here, with 124 g/L residual sugar. Interestingly, it includes both shrivelled, late harvest and botrytised fruit. It’s a pretty confronting wine, with a wall of very sweet tinned passion fruit and caramel-brûlée sweetness, yet also tart acidity. It’s zippy, pippy, a bit sweaty and a jumble of sweetness and tartness that never gels; the finish is just sugar. Almost.

Best drinking: now. 16.5/20, 88/100. 9.8%, $50.

Taylors St Andrews Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

Chewy, very sweet fruit, dusty, a bit caramelised, full-bodied. Forward and tastes like plum juice and cardboard rolled in dust. Sticky oak tannins. I can’t get past the very sweet fruit and that cardboard character.

Best drinking: nowish, no hurry though. 16.5/20, 88/100. 14.5%, $75.

Cooks Lot Allotment 8888 Cabernet Sauvignon 2021

A green and lean Orange Cabernet with sappy gum leaf and twiggy spice, the sweet and sour crunchy eucalyptus palate tending bittery and a hit raspy. A bit of an 80s mode of Orange Cabernet. Not much fun now, though – all green, beany. 16.3 20 years. Maybe?

Best drinking: nowish, no hurry though. 16.3/20, 87/100.13.5%, $25.

Chapel Hill The Parson Shiraz 2023

Rough-edged but hearty version of this McLaren Vale red. There’s a bit of greenness, a bit of dried fruit, and then drying tannins. Plenty of wine for $18 but unpolished and raw.

Best drinking: nowish. 16.3/20, 87/100. 14%, $18.

Domaine Galuval La Montagne Cairanne 2020

Syrah Grenache. A leathery, fast-maturing Rhône red. Breathy, forward, earthy with saddle and earth. Lacks a bit of generosity. Tiring.

Best drinking: now. 16.3/20, 87/100. 14.5%, $90.

Feudo Arancio Grillo 2025

A more generic expression this vintage. Lemon and this honeyed grapefruit and cardboard flat edge; it’s quite forward, and if it didn’t have a screwcap, I’d call for a second bottle. Plenty of hay development.

Best drinking: now. 16.3/20, 87/100. 13%, $20.

Forrest The Doctors’ Sauvignon Blanc 2025

Part of the new generation of reduced alcohol wines, with this a Marlborough Sauv. Early picked fruit and looks it – a pyrazine feast with green pea and gooseberry fresh herbs jumping out. A very green and sour palate too – it’s green juice. Not aggressively acidic or sweet, though, which is a plus for this low alcohol mode. That greenness gets a bit raw by the end of the first glass.

Best drinking: now. 16.3/20, 87/100. 9.5%, $25.

Harewood Flux-V Pinot Noir 2024

I don’t get why these Flux-V wines are so variable when the rest of the Harewood range is rock solid. It’s a leafy, sweet and sour, curranty, mulberry-laden red with sappy fruit and sharp acidity. Clearly mixed ripeness – soupy and sticky tannins, but leafy too. Balance isn’t quite there.

Best drinking: now. 16.3/20, 87/100. 14%, $40.

Meerea Park Estates Blend Shiraz 2023

Horsey, leathery and tart, this feels lean and unbalanced, and the acidity hits hard. Curious wine this. There’s decent Hunter fruit in there, but scarred with some old-school Huntery leather.

Best drinking: now. 16.3/20, 87/100. 13.5%, $50.

Asconi Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine NV

The lesser wine in this range of Moldovan ice wines. Simple confected raisins and caramel. Sugary overripe fruits: plum and raisin, but it finishes dry and surprisingly a bit warm. Blunt and pruney – it’s pretty dry for an ice wine rather than generous. A bit short too. Just ok.

Best drinking: now. 16/20, 86/100. 10.6, $45.

Jeanneret Menerva Cabernet Sauvignon 2021

Heavy and slightly cooked Clare red with a sense of overripe minty black fruit, tar, leather, licorice and dried berries. Overdone and leathery – less would be more.

Best drinking: now. 16/20, 86/100. 15%, $60.

St Hallett Faith Shiraz 2023

How the mighty have fallen. This is all glossy, super-sweet berry fruit, but it feels thin and cheap. Barossa-lite. Nice plum fruit but it falls away into cardboardy meh.

Best drinking: now. 16/20, 86/100. 14.5%, $20.

Tavernello Sangiovese 2023

Basic organic Italian Sangiovese that’s $9 at Aldi. Leathery berries, a large slice of bitter earth, not much fruit given the tannins. A weird curranty bitterness is distracting. Lots of mixed ripeness and not super clean. This is fine for $10 but that’s about it.

Best drinking: now. 15.8/20, 85/100. 12.5%, $10.

Faustino Rivero Ulecia Reserva 2019

Aldi exclusive Spanish red from Utiel-Requena. Tastes much older than 2019. Leather, caramel, dust. Not much else. Sweet and sour palate tastes of balsamic, oak tannins and dust, but zero fruit. Savoury but empty.

Best drinking: now. 15.5/20, 84/100. 13%, $10.

Jean-Marie Garnier Pinot Noir 2024

Aldi exclusive. Cardboard. Unripe. Pokey acidity. Unripe and a bit green, this is very basic $10 red wine.

Best drinking: now. 15/20, 82/100. 13%, $10.

Marchesini Piemonte Rosso 2023

Another Aldi-exclusive. This is volatile and has some underripe blackcurrant black texta. Plenty of greenness. Next-level volatility is inexcusable. Hard no.

Best drinking: now. 14.5/20, 80/100. 13%, $13.