Figures show that 11% of our grocery bills are now spent on alcohol, with more and more of us adding an extra bottle or two to our trolleys. But as we trawl the aisles looking to buy wine to accompany our ?come dine with me? get-togethers, or for our precious Friday night treat, how can we make sure our purchases are really hitting the right spots ? for both our wallets and taste buds?



Faced with endless choice in styles, prices and quality, going out to buy wine can often be like searching for a diamond in the rough. To bag a decent bottle you need to be savvy with your wine choices, knowing what to look for and where you are most likely to find the best deals.

The first thing to be aware of is how the marketing game works. Be rest assured, as you scan the supermarket shelves you are potentially setting yourself up to be the victim of marketing con-tricks. Seventy five per cent of supermarket wines are sold on 'special offer'. Great you think, such a huge pool of great offers available. But then you learn that these ?special offers? are in fact funded by a few select, money-making wine companies, that are are more concerned about improving their profit margins rather than the quality of the juice in the bottle.

To back this up, is the fact that the average bottle of wine sold in the UK has just 30p worth of wine in it. The rest goes on marketing, packaging and other stuff you can't taste. Certainly an eye opener when browsing over-priced, overwhelming supermarket wine shelves.

So if you buy a bottle of wine costing ?3, only a few pence will go towards the wine. ?5 and you'll get about 50p-?1 worth of wine, ?7 and you are getting closer to a fuller bottle of great grape. But this doesn't mean that the moreyou pay when you buy wine, the better the bottle will be. Get to about a tenner and you are probably unlikely to find a proportionate increase in quality and cost.

So what can you do? Well, you could look to buy wine from smaller, lesser known winemakers who don't have the financial muscle to get on to the UK supermarket shelves. The benefits are that winemakers at these estates are not so concerned by profits and purchasing power but instead are simply looking to make great tasting bottles of wine.

The problem is how to find them. One way is to check out the internet where you will find a number of retailers who are committed to helping you buy wine made by smaller, passionate winemakers that not only tastes great, but also costs you less.

In addition, online retailers often offer you much more guidance and advice about the type of wine you might like, as well as access to customer feedback and in some cases, even interactive contact with the producers themselves. The results - you drink better but spend less.

Naked Wines is an online farmer's market for the kind of winemakers who want to spend their lives making great wine, rather than selling it, helping you buy wine that will make any night worth staying in for. For more information visit