Wines of the Week: <br></br>2000 Safeway Pinot Blanc; <br></br>1999 Sierra Los Andes Cabernet-Merlot

White: 2000 Safeway Pinot Blanc, £4.99, Safeway

The pinot blanc grape has a tendency to be odourless, colourless and tasteless, but in the hands of the Turckheim co-operative in Alsace, this is a refreshing, full-bodied, seafood-friendly white with crisp, apple and pear undertones and a lightly honeyed note. In short, pinot blanc with character, and it's not often you can say that.

Red: 1999 Sierra Los Andes Cabernet-Merlot, £5.50, or two for £10 (till 16 September), Marks & Spencer.

A Bordeaux-style blend of Rapel Valley merlot and Maipo Valley cabernet sauvignon with a dollop of the carmenère grape for good measure, this sleek Chilean red made by Juan Carlos Faundez of Viña Carmen is in the classically blackcurranty mould with a come-hither, juicy quality to them.