New to wine - need recommendations

Hi. I've been seriously drikning wine for a few years now but have only recently started to think about what I'm drinking.

I was wondring if people had some recommendations for me. Really like strong, fruity reds and rioja's. I'm looking for something in the £5-10 for drinking right away and also looking for something to put down.

I have acouple of bottles put away already that I picked up in Nice. They were about 30-40 euro's each. I'm now looking for something around the £20-30 mark in UK. I undertand that the 2005 bourdeux's are good.

Any recommendations?

In the low end range, I find Muga's Rioja, the basic bottling, to be reliably good.. the white is too..

another inexpensive Spanish wine is Abadia Retuerta and lots of folks rave about Las Rocas.. both are in the €7 range

If you can find Pavillon Rouge de Chateau Margaux or Dame de Montrose both are good second label wines of top producers.. and usually lots more reasonally price..

Clos de Marquis is another nice one.. [/code]

Jon
There's a few good wine merchants in Scotland who I'd recommend popping into and asking the same question. Luvians in Cupar and St. Andrews and Raeburns in Edinburgh. Both have tremendous selections and are a world away from supermarket fodder. There's also a spanish specialist who I think are called Moreno wines and based in England.

In general, strong fruity reds shouts Australia and in particular South Australia (Barossa Valley, McClaren Vale, etc).

Reds from Puglia in Italy often have a lot of stuffing (but also some complexity) for the price. Ditto Sicily.

Various other Spanish regions might offer interest e.g. Penedes. For a wine at just short of £20 that might match your preferences, try Coma Velha by Mas D'en Gil. Waitrose stock it in the inner cellar, but a few independant merchants also stock it. It's possible to get it for as cheap as £15 if you strike it lucky.

Chile is good for clean cheap fruity reds, which only really lack for complexity and cellaring potential, but at the price are very good

There's basically a whole world of wine out there - all I'd say is taste as much as you can and you'll start to identify your palate preferences.

Best of luck

Ian