Whether you're looking for a bottle to take to a friend's or stocking up the bar at home, you'll get much more out of a trip to one of London's brilliant indie booze shops with their carefully edited selections and knowledgeable staff.Gerry's is something of a Soho institution. With a gargantuan selection of spirits on offer, including many exceedingly hard-to-find ones, Gerry's is the place to come if you're after some obscure mezcal or a liqueur. They have a lot of absinthe by the way, if you're inclined towards the green fairy.Find it: 74 Old Compton St, W1D 4UW; There are now four Bottle Apostles dotted around London, but it's still very much an indie operation stocking everything from craft beer to fine champagne via artisan gins. Staff are super knowledgeable and never snobby - equally happy to match some rose with your takeaway pizza as to recommend a starter Japanese whisky. Don't miss their regular tasting evenings.Find it: Victoria Park; A new addition to the off licence scene, owner Melanie Symonds wanted to redefine the London booze shop with Brahms & Liszt.

It also doubles up as a tasting room with events as cider and wine pairing and gin masterclasses, plus you can stock on up unusual glassware as well as obscure, quality spirits. best red wine salad dressing recipeFind it: 10 Chatsworth Rd, E5 0LP; best wine list in orange county Indie booze shops - in picturesbest wine for under 20 dollars A bit smarter than your usual offy, Hedonism is more of a wine and spirits boutique in a very smart part of Mayfair. top wines of 1990Its buyers have scoured the world looking for the creme de la creme, finishing up with around 5,500 wines and 3,000 spirits. best wine estates south africa

Help at this shop comes in the form of former sommeliers from top Michelin starred restaurants, which is comforting when you're planning to splash some cash.best food and wine resortsFind it: 3-7 Davies St, W1K 3LD; hedonism.co.ukSuper smart: Hedonism Wines in Mayfair (Picture: Hedonism Wines)If you're a budding mixologist, and especially like shaking up Latin American cocktails, Amathus is the place to go as the owner of the UK's biggest collection of pisco, tequila, mezcal and cachaca. Indeed, Ceviche restaurant founder Martin Morales comes here for his pisco.As Britain's oldest wine and spirit merchant dating back to 1698, BB&R have a rather special standing in London. Its shop in St James's Street has changed little since the 17th Century and you'll find quality booze ranging from as little as a fiver up to £5000. In case you're an out of towner with a serious budget, it can also offer fine wine advice from multi-lingual specialists.

It also runs exceptional wine courses and has just launched its new 'Cellar Series', hwihc sees it collaborate with top London restaurants such as Gymkhana and Dabbous to put on exclusive supper clubs.Find it: 3 St James's St, SW1A 1EG; Whisky nuts, this one is for you. Originally a wine seller, Milroy's is now all about the darker stuff, growing its range over the years to include Scottish single malts, Bourbon and rye whiskey from America as well as rarer bottles from the likes of Japan, Sweden and South Africa. It also deals in gin, vodka, tequila and rum by the way. Make sure you pop into the bar if you want to get more of a taste.Find it: 3 Greek St, W1D 4NX; milroys.co.uk If you're a whisky and cigars kind of guy - or girl - this Soho old hat is just the ticket. Run by the same family since the Second World War, the Vintage House has an impressive stock of malt whisky, fine wine, Armagnacs and Cuban cigars dating back to 1879 - as well as rum and tequila. Above this shop you'll find the Soho Whisky Bar, a members bar with a smoking terrace.

Find it: 42 Old Compton St, W1D 4LR; vintagehouse.coFollow us on Twitter @ESLifeandStyle and FacebookSome years ago I interviewed the author, humanitarian and former Beirut hostage Terry Waite who explained with enormous relish that he liked red wine, but even more than he liked drinking it, he liked to spend as little as possible on a bottle. He meant that literally. The cheapest bottle from the cheapest shop. I still like to think of those who invited the great man to dinner to be presented with a bottle of gnat’s urine. What did they do with their Terry bottles? Feed them all to him? Pass them on unopened to another dinner host? I expect Terry is horrified by today’s news that 54 per cent of us won't spend more than £6 on a bottle of wine. As a wine critic, my own line on this story is that I don’t care how much a bottle of wine costs – as long as a) it gives me pleasure to drink and b) it is good value for money. The happy news is that there are some cracking wines out there for under £6 – you just have to know where to look for them (and the list of six below is a good place to start).

But what do I mean by value? The first thing is that if condition a) – “pleasure to drink” - is not met then nothing is good value, however cheap it might be. After that, I want any wine I buy or recommend to be competitively priced against other good wines. It’s also worth looking at the “bang for your buck” measure of value – how much of the bottle price is actually going towards the quality of the wine in your glass? The wine importer Bibendum calls this vinonomics and has worked out that: On a £5 bottle 47p is spent on wine. On a £7.50 bottle £1.61 is spent on wine. On a £10 bottle £2.87 is spent on wine. On a £20 bottle £7.17 is spent on wine. I’d argue with some of their calculations at the top end of the scale – the cost of logistics (not such good economies of scale) plus packaging (fancier) plus marketing is likely to be higher in a £20 wine. But it’s pretty clear that there’s a sweet spot at around £10 where the actual wine is worth 5x the amount in your £5 bottle, proving that yes, it is worth trading up.

It's reassuring news for the (nearly) half of us who do like to spend more than £6 on a bottle of wine from time to time. Although I don’t expect that will convince Terry. SIX OF THE BEST WINES FOR UNDER £6 WHITE The Exquisite Collection Rias Baixas Albarino 2013 (12.5%, Aldi, £5.99) Hello, spring. Peachy-fresh albarino from the Atlantic coast of Spain makes a good aperitif and is delicious with pink prawns or other seafood RED Vin de Pays de l’Ardeche Gamay 2013 France (12%, M&S, £5.49) Light-bodied and pale, this sappy red made from gamay, the beaujolais grape, is good slightly chilled. Simply Garnacha NV Spain (13.5%, Tesco, £4.79) Some of the best cheap wines in the world come from the north-east corner of Spain where there are hillsides covered in garnacha vines whose fruit is used to make this soft, plump red. Porcupine Ridge Shiraz 2012 South Africa (14.5%, Sainsbury’s, £5.99 down from £7.99 until 8 April) Deep, rich and inky, a real blood and guts of a wine, this is shiraz, grown in Swartland north of Cape Town, and aged in French oak .