Try the 'second hand' market

Would you buy a car just knowing its year, mileage and price?

Anyone in the motor trade would say you were mad if you failed to take a peek under the bonnet, scratch at the sills and kick the tyres.

Wine is similar, not so much in the pristine bottles on supermarket shelves, but if you decide to buy the odd high-quality bottle or case - in effect, a second-hand purchase.

In a market where fakery and corruption can be rife (bottles of £20 claret being fobbed off as P?trus 1982, at a mere £3,000 a bottle, is a current nasty scam), you have to be careful.

Fine wines are a real treat, but often it's better to stick to the high street where many of the bottles - particularly those priced at £7 and above - are fabulous for the money. Try these:

Wine of the week
Yalumba Bush Vine Grenache 1999 (Wine Rack, Bottoms Up, £8.99).
This South Australian red is a lovely soft, ripe mouthful, with plum, clove and chocolate aromas, and cherry, strawberry and spice flavours.

Dominio Los Pinos Crianza 1999 Valencia, organic (Waitrose, £7.49).
Don't be misled into thinking that Spanish wine equals Rioja. So many lesser-known areas now make delicious reds, such as this mix of Merlot and Monastrell grapes grown high in the hills surrounding Valencia. This is a gently oaked fruit brute with gobs of ripe blackberry, sour cherry, stewed plums and black pepper. I've tried this one on lots of pals and not one has a bad word to say about it. Astonishing stuff.

Fighting Flat Shiraz, Redbank 1999 (Lay & Wheeler, 020 7329 0308, £8.75).
Another silly Aussie name, another stonking wine. Dense, voluptuous, almost black wine from Victoria, this one is massively fruity, very powerful and intensely spicy. Not for the faint-hearted.