Let $G$ be a connected graph of order $n$.The Wiener index $W(G)$ of $G$ is the sum of the distances between all unordered pairs of vertices of $G$. In this paper we show that the well-known upper bound $\big( \frac{n}{δ+1}+2\big) {n \choose 2}$ on the Wiener index of a graph of order $n$ and minimum degree $δ$ [M. Kouider, P. Winkler, Mean distance and minimum degree. J. Graph Theory 25 no. 1 (1997)] can be improved significantly if the graph contains also a vertex of large degree. Specifically, we give the asymptotically sharp bound $W(G) \leq {n-Δ+δ\choose 2} \frac{n+2Δ}{δ+1}+ 2n(n-1)$ on the Wiener index of a graph $G$ of order $n$, minimum degree $δ$ and maximum degree $Δ$. We prove a similar result for triangle-free graphs, and we determine a bound on the Wiener index of $C_4$-free graphs of given order, minimum and maximum degree and show that it is, in some sense, best possible.